On the Hazy Border Between the Living and Nonliving

Finding Genius Podcast

Richard Jacobs

Medicine, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Life or death is a false dichotomy—at least when it comes to viruses. Robert Siegel posits that viruses exist somewhere on the hazy border between things that are and aren't alive.

He sums it up uniquely in a short stanza:

"A virus has a structure giving it properties that lie between
Inanimate and truly living
Less than cell, but more than gene."

Press play to discover:

In what way the symptoms we associate with viral infections are produced by the immune response itself
How viruses are the exceptions that prove the rule of the central dogma of biology
What might dictate whether a virus like SARS-CoV-2 or herpes becomes more or less deadly as it infects more hosts

Siegel is a professor in the Stanford University Microbiology and Immunology Department, and has an extensive background as a teacher and researcher. He entered the field of virology and biological studies during an exciting time, just after viruses were sequenced.

Since 1981, he's been teaching a course on human viruses, which makes him a great resource for Richard Jacobs's book on viruses. The many topics explored include the three primary ways of defining life (plus a bonus definition), why the incubation period differs from virus to virus, for what reason viruses might use quorum sensing or coordinate action, treatments that are aimed at viral proteins, such as those of hepatitis C, viruses as therapeutics and tools for diagnosis, and more.

Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Transcript

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0:00.0	Forget frequently asked questions common sense common knowledge or Google how about advice from a real genius
0:06.8	95% of people in any profession are good enough to be qualified and licensed 5% go and beyond. They become very good at what they do.
0:15.1	But only 0.1% are real Jesus.
0:18.3	Richard Jacobs has made it his life's mission to find them for you.
0:22.4	He hunts down and interviews geniuses in every field, sleep science, cancer, stem cells,
0:27.2	ketogenic diets, and more.
0:28.8	Here come the geniuses.
0:30.4	This is the Finding Genius Podcast.
0:33.0	That is Richard Jacobs.
0:35.0	Hello, this is Richard Jacobs with the Finding Genius Podcast.
0:41.0	I have a really great guest today, Robert Stekel. He's a professor at
0:44.5	Stanford University and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He's going to be
0:49.6	a co-author here in the virus book I'm putting together. Very well known. He's been around for a long time. He's part of the
0:56.4	program in human biology, the Center for African Studies, the Woods Institute for the Environment. He's been a
1:02.4	course director of the infectious disease component of the preclinical curriculum.
1:06.7	He's taught many classes and so extensive background. So Robert, welcome and thanks for coming. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation. It's a
1:15.2	pleasure to be here. Nice to see you.
1:17.2	Yeah, tell me, what got you interested years ago in infectious diseases?
1:21.1	Well, whenever we tell stories about our past, they're always sort of just
1:24.4	so stories that we make up to sort of make our lives make sense. But I think one of the
1:28.7	main things that got me interested is that when I was in an undergraduate and when I was a graduate
1:34.4	student they were very very exciting times for molecular biology and for
	...

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