Summary
Cold and flu season is well and truly upon us, and whilst most of us are busy bemoaning the pesky viruses behind our sniffles and chesty coughs – one of our listeners has other ideas. Elizabeth wants to know whether we’re too hard on these oft-maligned microbes? We’ve all heard that some bacteria can be good for us, but what about viruses? Could they have a softer side too? Hannah and Dara explore the virome, from prehistoric placental proteins to ultra-precise disease fighting phages to find out if Viruses truly are the villains of the microscopic world or whether they just need a better PR team.
Contributors Jonathan Ball - Professor of Molecular Virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Martha Clokie - Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester. Marylin Roosinck - Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at Penn State University US.
Producer: Emily Bird Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem A BBC Studios Production
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Hello, I'm Kimberly Wilson. I'm a psychologist, and in my new podcast, Complex, I'll be your guide |
| 0:14.4 | through all the information and misinformation that's out there about mental health. |
| 0:19.0 | I'm joined by expert guests covering topics from people |
| 0:22.5 | pleasing to perfectionism, burnout to empathy, to find tangible advice so we can understand ourselves |
| 0:28.9 | a little better. Complex with me, Kimberly Wilson. Listen on BBC Sounds. You're about to listen to a |
| 0:37.3 | brand new episode of Curious Cases. |
| 0:39.4 | Shows are going to be released weekly, wherever you get your podcast. |
| 0:42.2 | But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:50.0 | I'm Hannah Frye. |
| 0:51.2 | And I'm Dara O'Brien. |
| 0:52.4 | And this is Curious Cases. |
| 0:54.1 | The show will we take your quirkiest questions? |
| 0:56.1 | Your crudious conundrums. |
| 0:57.6 | And then we solve them. |
| 0:58.5 | With the power of science. I mean, do we always solve them? I mean, the hit rate's pretty low. But it is with science. It is with science. One of the big problems about post-COVID, as well as all of the other massive problems. |
| 1:14.1 | Yes. One of the big problems about post-COVID as well as all of the other massive problems |
| 1:14.1 | is that I just think that viruses have ended up with quite a bad reputation, you know? |
| 1:20.4 | You think you've ended up with a bad reputation? |
| 1:21.8 | I'm literally standing in front of you here with a tissue that says virus is bad. |
| 1:26.4 | But I put a lot of money into the tissue, into the virus is bad tissue. Are you telling me it's a grey area? I think you need to get a permanent marker and pop a little question mark on there at least. Okay, yeah. See, this is the thing you see. I'm very settled in my virus's bad stance. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to be, you know, |
| 1:45.0 | it'd be embarrassing. |
... |
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