Those who frequent Nature Network probably have a different attitude to viruses than most. Going on some of the zappy pictures we seen in Nature, it’s arguable that viruses should be treasured as works of (natural) art.
That apart, though, as someone currently suffering all the joy of a streaming cold, my attitude to a virus is ‘very nice, but what is it for?’
Perhaps someone like Henry Gee who is regularly troubled by nasty attacks of creationism could pass on this query. Really. I’d like to know. What are the little b***ers for? Because I, for one, would not miss them.
Maybe you could ask your question the other way round! If you’re a virus, you’re doing pretty well, I’d say. A few of them might miss us if we weren’t around, but most of them would quite happily evolve to find other host species. I am sure Henry can provide a far more erudite response than me, though!
Brian, your fevered brain has you in the grip of its own teleology. Viruses are made that way because that’s the neatest and most efficient way of being a virus. Viruses that look a little different probably won’t work as well, and are much rarer, extinct, or don’t get made in the first place. The problem with success is that it’s the victors that get to write the history books, making history, in hindsight, look like an onward and upward march of purposeful progress. The truth is that natural selection has neither memory, nor foresight, nor purpose, a destiny in view. The purpose is what we impose on the story after the fact – and that was a trap I exposed in In Search of Deep Time.
Henry – thanks to Sainsbury’s cold cure my brain isn’t too fevered. There was intended to be a certain amount of irony here, but the cold ruined my ability to get it across. What I was trying to say is, if you take a creationist viewpoint, ‘what is a virus for?’ becomes a puzzle. (And also, I was trying to get across the message that I would really rather they didn’t exist.)
I love the phrase ‘your fevered brain has you in the grip of its own teleology’ – it has the feel of mixed metaphor (can a brain have a grip?), yet at the same time sounds impressive and suggests my brain has an ‘ology’ (as Maureen Lipmann had it in the old BT adverts), so it must be quite clever, really.
I’m not sure about viruses, Brian, but I am quite sure that Jesus wants me for a tapeworm.
Maybe the creationists think that viruses made those dinosaur footprints?