The Origin of Viruses
CrowdScience
BBC
4.8 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2016
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Where did the first viruses come from? They have the potential to wipe out life on Earth. But could life on Earth itself have evolved from the first viruses? Like the chicken and the egg, there are fierce arguments about which came first and rival scientists get quite cross about it all.
We take a dip into the primordial soup of creation and try to answer listener Ian's excellent question. Along the way, we revisit medieval plagues, travel to Texas to the largest urban bat colony in the world and take a walk through the dense mosquito-infested Ugandan forest that gave its name to the Zika virus.
Plus, we reveal how a virus is responsible for the placenta. No virus, no placenta; no placenta, no humans?
Do you have a question we can turn into a programme? Email us at crowdscience@bbc.co.uk
This programme has been edited since broadcast to remove a brief reference to ‘bubonic plague’ being included in a list of viral diseases.
(Photo: HIV viruses attacking a Cell. Credit: ThinkStock)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there you have chosen to download an edition of Crowd Science from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:06.0 | On behalf of the team I'd like to congratulate you on your excellent taste. |
| 0:10.0 | Happy listening and if you are inspired to ask us a science question you want answered, details on how to do so are |
| 0:16.4 | at the end of the show. |
| 0:17.6 | Hi there, you are listening to crowd science from the BBC where we answer your questions about life, the universe and everything. |
| 0:28.0 | Today we have a question from listener Ian. Take it away Ian. |
| 0:32.0 | Hello, crowd science. I'm Ian speaking from Wadi Rum in Jordan. |
| 0:38.0 | My question for the crowd science team is, |
| 0:41.0 | where did the first viruses come from? |
| 0:46.0 | Mmm, it's coughs and cold season in the BBC office in London, viruses abound in this open-plan germ pit, |
| 0:57.0 | so I decided to get as far away as possible, a holiday somewhere with fewer diseased people and more sunshine. |
| 1:04.0 | And of course I'm taking all of you listeners with me through the magic of radio. |
| 1:08.5 | Ian, you've set us at Crowd Science on a mission to try and find out about the origin of viruses, but first off we should probably define what they are. |
| 1:17.0 | Before I escaped the office, there was just time to corner a friendly virologist who happened to be hanging around. |
| 1:24.0 | I'm Jonathan Ball and I'm a professor of virology at the University of Nottingham. |
| 1:29.0 | You are also occasionally my tea boy. |
| 1:32.0 | And don't ask me which I enjoy most. |
| 1:34.6 | Let's get straight to it. The basics, what is a virus? |
| 1:39.8 | Viruses are made essentially of genetic information. |
| 1:45.0 | One of the questions were always asked is, is a virus alive? |
| 1:49.0 | Is it? |
| 1:50.0 | Well, that's really difficult to answer. |
... |
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