Invisible Empire
Invisible Empire

Author: Pranay Lal

Publisher: Penguin Random House India Private Limited

Published: 2021-10-30

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9354922899

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Viruses are the world's most abundant life form, and now, when humanity is in the midst of a close encounter with their immense power, perhaps the most feared. But do we understand viruses? Possibly the most enigmatic of living things, they are sometimes not considered a life form at all. Everything about them is extreme, including the reactions they evoke. However, for every truism about viruses, the opposite is also often true. So complex and diverse is the world of viruses that it merits being labelled an empire unto itself. And whether we see them as alive or dead, as life-threatening or life-affirming, there is an ineluctable beauty, even a certain elegance, in the way viruses go about their lives-or so Pranay Lal tells us in Invisible Empire: The Natural History of Viruses. This is a book that defies categorisation. It brings together science, history and great storytelling to paint a fascinating picture of viruses as a major actor, not just in human civilisation but also in the human body. With rare photographs, paintings, illustrations and anecdotes, it is a magnificent and an extremely relevant book for our times, when we are attempting to understand viruses and examining their role in the lives of humans.

A Planet of Viruses
A Planet of Viruses

Author: Carl Zimmer

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2015-10-06

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 022632026X

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For years, scientists have been warning us that a pandemic was all but inevitable. Now it's here, and the rest of us have a lot to learn. Fortunately, science writer Carl Zimmer is here to guide us. In this compact volume, he tells the story of how the smallest living things known to science can bring an entire planet of people to a halt--and what we can learn from how we've defeated them in the past. Planet of Viruses covers such threats as Ebola, MERS, and chikungunya virus; tells about recent scientific discoveries, such as a hundred-million-year-old virus that infected the common ancestor of armadillos, elephants, and humans; and shares new findings that show why climate change may lead to even deadlier outbreaks. Zimmer’s lucid explanations and fascinating stories demonstrate how deeply humans and viruses are intertwined. Viruses helped give rise to the first life-forms, are responsible for many of our most devastating diseases, and will continue to control our fate for centuries. Thoroughly readable, and, for all its honesty about the threats, as reassuring as it is frightening, A Planet of Viruses is a fascinating tour of a world we all need to better understand.

The Invisible Enemy
The Invisible Enemy

Author: Dorothy Crawford

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2002-03-21

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 0191622486

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Viruses are disarmingly small and simple. None the less, the smallpox virus killed over 300 million people in the 20th century prior to its eradication in 1980. The AIDS virus, HIV, is now the single most common cause of death in Africa. In recent years, the outbreaks of several lethal viruses such as Ebola and hanta virus have caused great public concern. In her fascinating and vividly written book, Dorothy Crawford describes all aspects of the natural history of these deadly parasites, explaining how they differ from other microorganisms. She looks at the havoc viruses have caused in the past, where they have come from, and the detective work involved in uncovering them. Finally, she considers whether a new virus could potentially wipe out the human race. This is an informative and highly readable book, which will be read by all those seeking a deeper understanding of these minute but remarkably efficient killers.

Viruses
Viruses

Author: Dorothy H. Crawford

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0198811713

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Viruses are big news. From pandemics such as HIV, swine flu, and SARS, we are constantly being bombarded with information about new lethal infections. In this Very Short Introduction, Dorothy Crawford demonstrates from their discovery and the unravelling of their intricate structures, how clever these entities really are.

Viruses, Plagues, and History
Viruses, Plagues, and History

Author: Michael B. A. Oldstone

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 513

ISBN-13: 0190056789

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In Viruses, Plagues, and History, virologist Michael Oldstone explains the scientific principles of viruses and epidemics while relating the past and present history of the major and recurring viral threats to human health, and how they have influenced human events.

Indica
Indica

Author: Pranay Lal

Publisher: Random House India

Published: 2016-12-07

Total Pages: 639

ISBN-13: 9385990365

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Few places have been as influential as the Indian subcontinent in shaping the course of life on Earth. Yet its evolution has remained largely unchronicled. Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent fills this gap. From the oldest rocks, formed three billion years ago in Karnataka, to the arrival of our ancestors 50,000 years ago on the banks of the Indus, the author meticulously sifts through wide-ranging scientific disciplines and through the layers of earth to tell us the story of India, filled with a variety of fierce reptiles, fantastic dinosaurs, gargantuan mammals and amazing plants. Beautifully produced in full colour, with a rare collection of images, illustrations and maps, Indica is full of fascinating, lesser-known facts. It shows us how every piece of rock and inch of soil is a virtual museum, and how, over billions of years, millions of spectacular creatures have reproduced, walked and lived over and under it.

Origin and Evolution of Viruses
Origin and Evolution of Viruses

Author: Esteban Domingo

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2008-06-23

Total Pages: 573

ISBN-13: 0080564968

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New viral diseases are emerging continuously. Viruses adapt to new environments at astounding rates. Genetic variability of viruses jeopardizes vaccine efficacy. For many viruses mutants resistant to antiviral agents or host immune responses arise readily, for example, with HIV and influenza. These variations are all of utmost importance for human and animal health as they have prevented us from controlling these epidemic pathogens. This book focuses on the mechanisms that viruses use to evolve, survive and cause disease in their hosts. Covering human, animal, plant and bacterial viruses, it provides both the basic foundations for the evolutionary dynamics of viruses and specific examples of emerging diseases. - NEW - methods to establish relationships among viruses and the mechanisms that affect virus evolution - UNIQUE - combines theoretical concepts in evolution with detailed analyses of the evolution of important virus groups - SPECIFIC - Bacterial, plant, animal and human viruses are compared regarding their interation with their hosts

Viruses
Viruses

Author: Michael G. Cordingley

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2017-06-19

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0674972082

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While viruses—the world’s most abundant biological entities—are not technically alive, they invade, replicate, and evolve within living cells. Michael Cordingley goes beyond our familiarity with infections to show how viruses spur evolutionary change in their hosts and shape global ecosystems, from ocean photosynthesis to drug-resistant bacteria.

Viruses
Viruses

Author: Paula Tennant

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2018-03-12

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0128111941

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Viruses: Molecular Biology, Host Interactions, and Applications to Biotechnology provides an up-to-date introduction to human, animal and plant viruses within the context of recent advances in high-throughput sequencing that have demonstrated that viruses are vastly greater and more diverse than previously recognized. It covers discoveries such as the Mimivirus and its virophage which have stimulated new discussions on the definition of viruses, their place in the current view, and their inherent and derived 'interactomics' as defined by the molecules and the processes by which virus gene products interact with themselves and their host's cellular gene products. Further, the book includes perspectives on basic aspects of virology, including the structure of viruses, the organization of their genomes, and basic strategies in replication and expression, emphasizing the diversity and versatility of viruses, how they cause disease and how their hosts react to such disease, and exploring developments in the field of host-microbe interactions in recent years. The book is likely to appeal, and be useful, to a wide audience that includes students, academics and researchers studying the molecular biology and applications of viruses - Provides key insights into recent technological advances, including high-throughput sequencing - Presents viruses not only as formidable foes, but also as entities that can be beneficial to their hosts and humankind that are helping to shape the tree of life - Features exposition on the diversity and versatility of viruses, how they cause disease, and an exploration of virus-host interactions

Digital Contagions
Digital Contagions

Author: Jussi Parikka

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 9780820488370

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Digital Contagions is the first book to offer a comprehensive and critical analysis of the culture and history of the computer virus phenomenon. The book maps the anomalies of network culture from the angles of security concerns, the biopolitics of digital systems, and the aspirations for artificial life in software. The genealogy of network culture is approached from the standpoint of accidents that are endemic to the digital media ecology. Viruses, worms, and other software objects are not, then, seen merely from the perspective of anti-virus research or practical security concerns, but as cultural and historical expressions that traverse a non-linear field from fiction to technical media, from net art to politics of software. Jussi Parikka mobilizes an extensive array of source materials and intertwines them with an inventive new materialist cultural analysis. Digital Contagions draws from the cultural theories of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Friedrich Kittler, and Paul Virilio, among others, and offers novel insights into historical media analysis.