The Swine Flu thing...

[1KWIK_69]

Thanks again Gordo! ".."sloppy" because they don't replicate their own DNA very accurately and sometimes pick up and incorporate chunks of it from their hosts" is indeed correct, but I haven't been up long. :blush:

You've got it about right other than viruses don't have DNA. They aren't even that complex. They have what's called RNA, or RIBO NUCLEIC ACID instead of DEOXY RIBO NUCLEIC ACID like more complex life forms have. It doesn't take much to change RNA to more or even less lethal strains and there is no pattern or intelligence to it. It either survives in the host and speads to other hosts to replicate it's self, or if it dies off. Natural selection is the only thing that drives a viruses survival and success.

 

[lamont]

You've got it about right other than viruses don't have DNA. They aren't even that complex. They have what's called RNA, or RIBO NUCLEIC ACID instead of DEOXY RIBO NUCLEIC ACID like more complex life forms have. It doesn't take much to change RNA to more or even less lethal strains and there is no pattern or intelligence to it. It either survives in the host and speads to other hosts to replicate it's self, or if it dies off. Natural selection is the only thing that drives a viruses survival and success.

Its really just that viruses lack the chemical mechanisms that we have which self-repair DNA. They don't self-repair their RNA replication. DNA replication has mistakes just like RNA, but there's chemical Quality Assurance steps which try to reduce that.