Humanity goes viral

Date:

MATTHEW EDLUND
Guest Columnist
Edlund@lbknews.com

Lots of people want their work to go “viral” – to propagate everywhere and anywhere, to infect and affect the whole of humanity. Internet virality is one of the ways that information now spreads.
Biological information often operates differently from what you find on the internet. It’s a lot older – nearly four billion years worth – at least on this planet. Its origins, underpinnings, underlying systems and processes stand remarkably less clear. Recently people have been fascinated to discover their “genetic” origin. Friends come and tell me they’re surprised they are “part” American Indian, Samoan, Ashkenazi Jewish or southern African.
So it may also come a surprise to find out that you are heavily viral – at least 8% of your DNA. Most of that viral material comes from retroviruses, a group which includes AIDS. Add on the large number of bacterial genes inside you, and you may need to recognize “illegal aliens” are a very large part of your genetic makeup, and have been for hundreds of millions of years.
So what are we doing with all our viral DNA? What does it want from us?

Germs and Germ cells
An excellent article by Carl Zimmer (there are man