“Undergraduate teaching in the lab is like showing Dorn how to get in front of a ground ball. Teaching Cerrano how to hit a curve ball is graduate-level mentoring.”
Friday conversations with @americolopezy. If you know the reference, we should be friends.
Harvard scientists just shattered one of biology’s oldest rules.
We were taught:
Viruses can’t make their own proteins. They hijack yours. That’s why they’re “not alive.”
Except giant DNA viruses just crossed that line.
Researchers found they carry a full eukaryotic-style translation complex (vIF4F). Translation machinery.
Inside a virus. They can keep making proteins even under stress that shuts down normal viral replication.
If a virus brings its own protein-making tools…
Is it still just a parasite?
For decades we’ve drawn a clean boundary:
Cell = alive
Virus = not alive
Nature doesn’t care about our categories.
Maybe viruses aren’t just evolutionary side notes.
Maybe they helped build complex life.
Paper in Cell 👇
https://t.co/QyGzZf9e6o
Harvard news: https://t.co/YKAfEngdS3