Where Did Viruses Come From?
In 2020, the existence of the entire human race was threatened by this little tiny thing called coronavirus. Interestingly, this thing is just one out of the diverse family of viruses which are just less than 200 nanometers (nm) in diameter. What is more fascinating is that we arguably cannot even classify this thing as a living thing or be regarded as being alive. They are obligate intracellular parasites i.e. they require infecting a host in order to carry out basic life activities like replication or metabolic processes to generate energy for themselves. Aside this, they are just typical crystal compounds outside any biological host and can be said to be the bridge between living and non-living things. The structure of a virus is very simple. It typically consist of a protein capsid head that houses genetic materials (DNA or RNA) and a tail. However, the question on the origin of viruses or where they come from is an interesting topic in biology because it gives us a better perspe