All non-African populations alive today carry between two and four percent Neanderthal DNA, which continues to shape our ...

A newly discovered giant virus is helping researchers understand how one of biology's most unusual groups diversified – and ...

A few months into his postdoctoral research at Baylor College of Medicine in 2021, Rafael Michita made a curious observation. Peering at Zika viruses infiltrating placenta cells under a microscope, he ...

In evolutionary biology, all life on Earth is theoretically part of a single phylogenetic tree, indicating common ancestry.

Foamy viruses are a distinct subfamily of retroviruses characterised by unique replication strategies that diverge markedly from orthoretroviruses. Their single‐stranded RNA genome is reverse ...

The COVID-19 pandemic led to heightened public interest in learning about viruses and how they can cause diseases. There has been a lot of focus on communicating virology concepts to the general ...

A giant virus discovered in Japan is adding fuel to the provocative idea that viruses helped create complex life. Named ushikuvirus, it infects amoebae and shows unique traits that connect different ...

New research reveals how measles infection disrupts immune memory and increases vulnerability to other infections, reinforcing why high vaccination coverage remains critical to preventing outbreaks ...

Influenza viruses are among the most likely triggers of future pandemics. A research team has developed a method that can be used to study the interaction of viruses with host cells in unprecedented ...

While largely unnoticed, phages do not harm humans. On the contrary, these viruses are gaining increasing popularity as biomedicines to eradicate pathogenic bacteria, especially those associated with ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life. Viruses were far smaller than ...