Comments on: Virus caught in the act of infecting a cell

By: Jerry Martin

Jerry Martin — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:23:52 +0000

As already noted, this is well known among microbiologist and only the photomicrograph is unique. Also keep in mind that this type of bacteriophage is interesting in its’ uniqueness. Most bacteriphages and all mammalian and plant viruses to my knowledge do not have this tail structure and do not infect cells in this mechanistic matter. Exceptions are interesting but do not define the norml

By: IBTESHAM

IBTESHAM — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:36:11 +0000

Really its amazing & very good topic to think or discuss.Animation helps to understand the phenomena.

By: Larry Coleman

Larry Coleman — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 08:01:24 +0000

Bart, bacteriophages (of which this is one kind) have been used for almost 100 years. They replicate themselves because they’re naturally occurring viruses, so there’s no need to manufacture them. They’ve already been used for years and years as genetic modification deliverymen.

The news in this story is that someone caught an actual picture of the phage at work, but introductory genetics textbooks have pictures of them free floating or on the surface of a cell after injection and have since at least when I took college genetics a decade ago. In fact, the Hershey-Chase experiment which settled that DNA is the substance that is responsible for heredity was conducted over sixty years ago (1952–before the structure of DNA was even discovered!) and relied on bacteriophages.

So your first “prediction” is correct, although you have successfully predicted the past.

By: Mr.X

Mr.X — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 16:50:28 +0000

@Ralph: Maybe the difference between organism (organon- old greek for tool) and a device (funny word, btw) is only “verbal” !?

Of course, in contrast to man-made devices, biological machines (aka organisms) brought about by evolutionary processes probably lack a teleological raison d’être…

By: Ralph Dratman

Ralph Dratman — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 08:04:32 +0000

Scary, and also amazing to think that such a small organism… or is it a device… can be apparently so capable.

By: Mr.X

Mr.X — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 09:32:13 +0000

There are rumors you could see it blush when it realized it was under supervision…

By: eldras

eldras — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 09:17:19 +0000

I urge caution in medicine. the body is colony of symbiotic antonymous systems.
Halting viruses entering the cell may cause other havoc.

By: Dr.Pratt

Dr.Pratt — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 21:54:39 +0000

Kind of sexual….

By: C. K.

C. K. — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:28:27 +0000

Beautiful animation of a bacteriophage pooping inside an E. Coli bacterium!

By: Bart Likes

Bart Likes — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:01:47 +0000

I can see this machine being replicated in the next few years by some lab creating a new way to deliver and monitor cures. Maybe even using the nucleotide building blocks (earlier report) to manufacturer this nano robot and fully programmable.

By: Stephen Nielsen

Stephen Nielsen — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:24:55 +0000

This is so awesome – a major discovery with wide ranging implications.

These days, another such discovery will be made tomorrow .