The story of life’s beginnings gets stranger when you look closely at viruses. These tiny entities seem to sit at the edge of biology.

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 ...

A giant DNA virus pulled from a Japanese freshwater pond is forcing scientists to rethink how complex cells first acquired their defining feature: the nucleus. Named ushikuvirus, the newly ...

How did viruses evolve? Are they a streamlined form of something that existed long ago, or an ultimate culmination of smaller genetic elements joined together? Aa Aa Aa The evolutionary history of ...

Ushikuvirus, an amoeba-infecting giant virus, joins the family of giant viruses that may have driven the evolution of complex cells The origin of life on Earth becomes even more fascinating and ...

Study: Ancient evolutionary origins of hepatitis E virus in rodents. Image Credit: Shutterstock AI / Shutterstock.com A recent study published in PNAS describes the evolutionary origins of hepatitis E ...

Recent research findings indicate that many of the plant pathogens affecting agriculture today originated during an earlier era than originally believed. Analysis performed by an international team of ...

A study of bat viromes in China’s Yunnan, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Cambodia identifies 137 viral strains (40 novel species), confirms bats as the evolutionary source of porcine epidemic ...

Ancient plant viruses infecting modern crops likely evolved in wild plants before the last Ice Age and later spread across continents.

Russell has a PhD in the history of medicine, violence, and colonialism. His research has explored topics including ethics, science governance, and medical involvement in violent contexts. Russell has ...