The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Ever since viruses came to light in the late 1800s, scientists have set them apart from the rest of life. Viruses were far smaller than ...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — One of the first things the general of any army does before a battle is scout the terrain. Without seeing and understanding the battlefield, the issues of tactics, strategy and ...

Viruses are everywhere. They’re in the air; in sewage, lakes, and oceans; in grasslands and decaying wood. Some thrive in extreme conditions, like hydrothermal vents, Antarctic ice, and potentially ...

New research shows how surface material and temperature change how long viruses survive and whether they can still spread.

By the late 1990s, scientists realized that virus activity was likely shaping how carbon and nutrients cycled through ocean ...

Edward Chuong and Atma Ivancevic at the BioFrontiers Institute. (Credit: Glenn Asakawa/CU Boulder) Peek inside the human genome and, among the 20,000 or so genes that serve as building blocks of life, ...

Viruses closely related to the deadly MERS coronavirus are lurking in bats and one group, known as HKU5, may be just one mutation away from making the jump to humans. A new study reveals how these ...

Scientists identified more than 600 viruses in samples taken from bathrooms in the United States. The viruses infect bacteria — not people — and scientists say they may provide more benefits than ...