Bacteriophages are among the most common and diverse entities in the biosphere. Bacteriophages are ubiquitous viruses, found wherever bacteria exist. It is estimated there are more than 10^31 bacteriophages on the planet, more than every other organism on Earth, including bacteria, combined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage#Model_bacteriophages

But they're not alive...

"Viruses straddle the definition of life. They lie somewhere between supra molecular complexes and very simple biological entities. Viruses contain some of the structures and exhibit some of the activities that are common to organic life, but they are missing many of the others. In general, viruses are entirely composed of a single strand of genetic information encased within a protein capsule. Viruses lack most of the internal structure and machinery which characterize 'life', including the biosynthetic machinery that is necessary for reproduction. In order for a virus to replicate it must infect a suitable host cell". From The Bacteriophage T4 Virus

What Defines Life?
There is no precise definition of what separates the living from the non-living. One definition might be the point at which an entity becomes self-aware. In this sense, someone who has had severe head trauma may be classified as brain dead. In this case, the body and brain are still functioning on a base level and there is definitely metabolic activity in all of the cells that make up the larger organism, but it is presumed that there is no self-awareness so the person is classified as brain dead. On the other end of the spectrum, a different criterion for defining life would be the ability to move a genetic blueprint into future generations, thereby regenerating your likeness. In the second, more simplistic definition, viruses are definitely alive. They are undeniably the most efficient entities on this planet at propagating their genetic information.

Although there is no definitive resolution to the question of whether viruses can be considered living entities, their ability to pass on genetic information to future generations makes them major players in an evolutionary sense.


https://serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/yellowstone/viruslive.html

Considering much of our DNA comes from something other than our ancestors, through Horizontal Gene Transfer (HGT) perhaps these viruses are responsible for transfering genetic codes to us in the past.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2994187/Mystery-alien-genes-Scientists-discover-DNA-NOT-ancestors-say-change-think-evolution.html

Somehow I missed the story told by our genes in all the religious stories ever told.

This is fascinating info (and brand new to me!), koriwhore.

Thank you!!

Dayum.

Nice post. One thing that is remarkable about living things is the amount of energy they consume. Viruses draw on the energy of their hosts, and like you said, kori, seem to be living and not living things at the same time.

Phages can be used to overcome antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

Bacteria can't both resist the phage and the antibiotic simultaneously. You introduce the phage, then give the antibiotic.

Phages can be used by themselves as well.

dogblogger Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Phages can be used to overcome antibiotic
> resistance in bacteria.
>
> Bacteria can't both resist the phage and the
> antibiotic simultaneously. You introduce the
> phage, then give the antibiotic.
>
> Phages can be used by themselves as well.
Phage therapy was developed 100yrs ago in Russia and has been in continuous use there and in Poland ever since.
W/o the T4 Bacteriaphage we would probanly all be dead from ecoli.
In a Ted Talk an ExMo Professor of Evolutionary Biology at UMass explains "Natures Little Ninja Warriors" here
https://youtu.be/p2ngpKBPfF8
Natures most badass robots
Considering there are more of them in your body than human cells, perhaps they arrived here via comet and gave rise to us as their hosts.
Meaning perhaps "the creator" is literally inside of us and they are more ubiquitous than all the other life forms combined.
Perhaps instead of looking up for answers, we should look down, way down inside.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2018 09:12PM by koriwhore.

that's why deep meditation, as an adjunct to scientific inspiration.

Governments think they run this world but this world is run by viruses and head lice.

Paraphrasing J.B.S. Haldane:

"One thing we can conclude is that if there is a ghawd, he has an inordinate fondness for beetles.

Gawhd has an obvious fondness for left handed beetles.

Long live sir Paul but Ringo is no doubt a longer living miracle.

Is fire alive ?

Cool video on T4 Bacteriaphage reproduction cycle,
they blow up ecoli bacteria, by creating 100 copies of themselves in 20 minutes.

https://youtu.be/ehbZpo8oXSs

cool info...

It freaks me out that I'm literally made of about 30 trillion individual cells, each of them a complex micro-factory with all kinds of complicated structures inside it doing unimaginably complex bits of business every second, and not a single cell has any awareness or knowledge that it is just an infinitesimal part of "me" or even that it's inside a human body as opposed to some other animal. It's only a comparatively tiny handful of synapses in the brain that tell me I'm "me" and that I exist and that know all this other stuff about the other cells.

I hadn't thought about this stuff in years, but it's as fascinating as it was the first time. Thanks for the refresher course.
T4 looks for all the world like a moon landing vehicle. It attaches to specific receptor sites on the e. Coli surface, and injects its DNA--which then completely usurps he normal metabolic biochemical machinery of the cell for its own purposes.
Kind of like a politician, but I won't mention any names....

"The most ubiquitous orgasm... ."

Son I am disappoint.