Curious bits of DNA tucked inside genomes across all kingdoms of life historically have been disregarded since they don’t seem to have a role to play in the competition for survival. Or so researchers ...

Some viruses, like the common cold, are a flash in the pan. They infect us, our bodies fight back — which is what makes us sick — and then they’re gone, until the next variant rolls along. Other ...

Viroids are tiny strands of circular, infectious RNA. They differ from viruses in that they do not have a protective protein coat and that they do not encode any proteins of their own. They are also ...

Suddenly they appear and -- like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus -- can trigger major epidemics: Viruses that nobody had on their radar. They are not really new, but they have changed genetically. In ...

Bacteria and viruses are often lumped together as germs, and they share many characteristics. They’re invisible to the human eye. They’re everywhere. And both can make us sick, even kill us. That last ...