Science-The Basics of Viruses

Imagine that something doesn’t grow.respond, or eat, yet reproduces. This something which appears to be neither living or dead is a virus. A virus is a nonliving particle consisting of of a core of hereditary material surrounded by a protein coat. Viruses can reproduce only inside a living cell. Viruses are so small that scientists must use an extremely powerful microscope to see them.

Viruses are unlike living things. Some viruses can be made into crystals and stored in a jar for years. Then, if they enter an organism, they may quickly reproduce and cause new infections, often causing damage to the organism. Viruses, therefore, have a major impact on the living world.

Viruses are classified by their shape, the kind of hereditary material they have, the kind of organism that they infect, and their method of reproduction. The protein covering the viruses are often named for the disease that they cause, such as the polio virus, or the organ or tissue that they infect.

When most people hear the word virus, they often relate it to a cold sore, a cold, and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Mumps, measles, and the chicken pox are also diseases caused by viruses. A virus has to be inside a living cell to reproduce. The cell in which a virus destroys is called a host cell. Once a virus is in a host cell. It will act in two ways. It can either be active, or it can become latent and be an inactive part of the cell for a while.

If a virus enters the cell and becomes active right away, it causes the cell to make new viruses, which destroys the host cell. However, some viruses may be latent viruses. A latent viruses enters a bacteria cell and becomes part of the cell’s hereditary material without immediately destroying the cell or making new viruses. Latent viruses may appear to hide inside a host cell for many years. Then, at any time, the virus becomes active as it outlines the reproduction cycle of latent viruses.

Finally, viruses may cause diseases in plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and protists. There are no antibiotic medications to cure viruses. But some viral diseases can be prevented by vaccines. A vaccine is made from damaged virus particles that can not cause diseases anymore. Vaccines have been created for measles, polio, chicken pox, and for bacterial diseases.