In a world full of extraordinary things viruses might just be the strangest. They are intimately involved in the lives of all organisms but they may not technically be alive themselves. Yet, as the last year has proved, they can have dramatic effects on living things. A single virus can grow exponentially into a world changing event.

Here are ten big facts about these tiny, infectious things.

Top 10 Mysterious Viruses

10 Are Viruses Alive?

You might think that the debate on what constitutes life is settled. Generally we know whether something is alive or not just by looking at it but viruses blur the lines. They are made of the things we associate with life: proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids. They even do things we associate with life: they replicate and evolve. But the key fact is that they cannot do it on their own. For a virus to replicate it must infect a host cell and hijack their metabolism. Most scientists think of viruses as non-living assemblies of chemicals that are very good at making copies of themselves.

There are some researchers though that think of viruses as very much alive. They cite the complexity of their genomes and the speed of their evolution. They say that when we picture viruses in their complete form – as little capsules of DNA or RNA – we can imagine they are dead. But only in the same way a bacterial spore is dead when it is inactive. Once a virus enters a cell and begins the complex task of making more copies of itself they think it is perfectly correct to think of them as living organisms.

Whichever side of the debate you take the “life” cycle of a virus is a fascinating one.

9 Viruses may be the origin of life

Evolution is the best way of understanding how life on Earth has changed and developed but many people claim that evolution cannot tell us anything about the origin of life itself. One hypothesis however uses evolution to explain how life as we know it may have come into existence.

In the beginning there was RNA, a molecule closely related to DNA. Crucially though RNA is able to twist and form molecular machinery that can make copies of itself. Once the first RNA molecule that could do this formed it would rapidly proliferate. If mutations developed that made it better at making more copies then it would outcompete other RNA strands. In this way inanimate molecules can evolve.

What are the simplest things that use RNA and DNA to replicate? Viruses. In the Virus World hypothesis it was viruses that came first – and those that could infect cellular organisms are the ones that have survived until today.

8 You are mostly virus

Viruses are everywhere. Wherever there is life there are viruses that are associated with them. While some are very noticeable through their effects on us many are so harmless that we never know they are on us. And there are a lot on us at any one time.

We tend to think of humans as a mass of our tissues and cells – the bits that share our DNA. In the human body there are around 10,000,000,0000,000 cells that are human. This number is tiny however compared to the bacteria that live inside us and on us. There are ten times as many bacterial cells in any human as there are human cells. Then there are the viruses. Each human carries a hundred times more viruses than they do human cells.

While some of these viruses will target human cells many of them want nothing more than to infect the bacteria we share our bodies with.

7 Viral Antibiotics

One of the greatest threats in modern medicine is antibiotic resistance in bacteria. When our antibiotics fail to kill bacterial infections we are pretty much back in the pre-modern age when a simple scrape could lead to your death. Viruses may be our saviours.

Bacteria are prey to viruses just like we are. Phages are viruses that infect bacteria. Once a phage has infected a bacterium it replicates hundreds or thousands of copies of itself and splits the bacterium open, spewing out more viruses to infect more bacteria. If you can find a phage that hunts and kills a dangerous bacterium they you may just have found a solution to antibiotic resistance.

Lots of research is being done on phage therapy, as these treatments are called, and many scientists are excited by the possibility of novel cures for bacterial infections. But the idea of using phages is not entirely new. When a cholera epidemic struck India in 1926 doctors took stool from people who had unexpectedly recovered from cholera and gave it to the sick. Many of those treated by this somewhat gruesome method recovered. Likely the answer lay in phage viruses that targeted the cholera germs.

6 Nobel Prizes

If you want a Nobel Prize then one of the best places for you to start your work might be on a virus. In 2020 researchers were award Nobel Prizes in Medicine for their discovery of the Hepatitis C virus. The awarding of Nobel Prizes for Virology goes back much further however.

Viruses were first discovered in 1892 when Dmitri Ivanovsky found that tobacco plants could be infected by disease when injected with a fluid that had been passed through a filter much too small for any bacteria to pass through. The unseen infectious agent was soon named a virus – from the Latin for poison, or a slimy liquid. Some thought that a virus was a liquid thing but Wendell Stanley managed to isolate the tobacco mosaic virus and purify it into crystals for study, proving viruses were particles. He won the Nobel Prize for his work in 1946.

Since then viral research has won the Nobel Prize dozens of times for either curing a viral infection, such as the creation of the Yellow Fever vaccine, or working out how viruses like papillomavirus causes cervical cancer.

5 Mind-boggling Numbers

It is impossible to count the number of virus particles on Earth at any one time. By the time you counted them they would have multiplied and been destroyed many times over. Scientists can however make a good estimate. These range from 10 to the power 30 to 10 to the power 32, so many would say there are around 10 to the power 31 on Earth. That is 1 with 31 zeroes after it. To put it in perspective there are a mere 10 to the power 21 stars in the observable universe.

All of these are on the planet yet we can’t see them. This makes it clear just how small viruses actually are. So what would happen if you took some very fine tweezers and lay all these viruses end to end? A good average size of a virus is around 125 nanometres – billionths of a metre. So divide the number of viruses by their average size to find out how far our chain of viruses would stretch.

The answer is that our viral chain would be 800 million light years long. This would pass well beyond the nearest galaxy, and passed the neighbouring clusters of galaxies.

4 Tiny Viruses

We’ve seen that viruses can be small, but just how small can they go? That depends on their nucleic acids. A virus is, basically put, just a fancy shell around some DNA or RNA. The shell helps the DNA or RNA get into a host cell and the nucleic acids force the host cell to make more shells so the virus can spread. How many genes can that take?

For the Circoviruses that infect pigs all they require are three genes. The entire length of their genome is just 1726 base pairs long, compared to a human’s genome of over 3 billion base pairs. With just three genes the virus is able to invade a cell and replicate. With such a short genome it only needs a small coat to house it. The circoviruses are only 17 billionths of a metre across.

Some researchers are trying to get even smaller. One group has announced they made an artificial virus from bits of protein and DNA that is 12 billions of a metre long. It is hoped that more artificial viruses may have a role in advanced medical treatments.

3 Giant (Reanimated) Viruses

Not all viruses are content to stay tiny however. Some of them can get pretty big – if you consider bacteria large. When researchers went looking for bacteria in a cooling tower they collected what they thought were bacteria but they could not identify them. It was only much later that they were discovered to be an entirely new type of giant virus. They called it a Mimivirus as it was a MIcrobe-MImicking virus. Its genome is over 12 million base pairs long and the virus is larger than the smallest bacteria.

Since then other giant viruses have been discovered, some of them in unlikely places. In 2014 the largest ever virus was discovered in the frozen tundra of Russia. The samples it was found in were over 30,000 years old. Then they did the obvious thing and tried to reanimate them.

The scientists exposed amoebae to the defrosted viruses as they know other giant viruses infect these single-celled organisms. Despite being from the Stone Age the viruses successfully invaded the cells and replicated. The ability of viruses to remain active after so long has led to some speculation that melting permafrost may release long-forgotten human pathogens.

2 Viruses on Viruses

Mamavirus is another giant virus that was discovered in a cooling tower, infecting amoebae, but what most excited scientists was the discovery of another virus associated with it. This much smaller virus targets mamavirus and preys on it like a parasite. Because of this researchers named it Sputnik and the other viruses that attack viruses are known as satellite viruses.

Sputnik is not able to infect an amoeba on its own and reproduce. It can only replicate in amoebae that have already been infected by a mamavirus. Instead of directly hijacking the cell’s own machinery Sputnik uses the virus’ replication proteins to make copies of itself.

Not even viruses are immune to the insidious and ingenious methods of viral invasion.

1 You are part virus

Humans all carry viruses of some type or other inside us – but we also have viruses trapped within our genome. Some viruses are not content to simply replicate in our cells. Some use molecular machines to cut our DNA and insert their own into it. If they do this in a sperm or egg then their DNA can be passed down the generations. Over millions of years this has happened so often that around 8% of any person’s entire genome is made of these viruses that have become fossilised inside us.

The viruses in genomes can even be used to track evolution. If two species have evidence of the same virus infecting them then it can be a clue that the common ancestor of both was infected before they evolved into separate species.

Once the viruses become stuck in our genome however genome and passed on they can have big effects on evolution. The viruses mostly become inactivated and reshuffled across the genome and sometimes this mixing can be advantageous. Some human genes use the promoter regions of viral DNA to be activated. Some have even been co-opted into the human immune response system – a case of viruses fighting viruses.

Top 10 Viruses That Actually Help Humankind

The statistics are staggering. YouTube has around 2.2 billion active users monthly, and people post about 2,500 videos every minute. Meanwhile, about 500 million people are on Instagram daily, and some 45 million open their TikTok accounts at some time during the day.

With so many people using these and other platforms, competition for views is fierce. Very few people can make a living just by posting videos. Many try but very few succeed. Most content disappears in the rush of new content, and few people ever watch the seemingly endless video posts. However, sometimes a video goes viral, and millions of people watch it.

But why? What makes one video stand out when so many are forgotten? It’s difficult to say that one specific thing ensures a video will go viral. A few things help: If it’s funny, topical, and something people can relate to, then it’s more likely to be remembered and spread around. Some say the technical quality is important, but this depends on the content. Some viral videos are shot on a shaky mobile phone, which helps them feel more genuine.

There are no rules to follow to ensure your video goes viral. A video will probably only be popular for a very short time. One week everyone seems to be watching it; the next week, it’s gone. Here are the top ten bizarre ways people have gone viral.

10 Food for Thought

The market for entertaining clips is big, but the supply is even bigger. People quickly scroll through dozens of videos before seeing one that grabs their attention. This means that anyone who wants to build a faithful audience must do something drastic to stand out.

While food challenges aren’t a new invention, some food combos are extreme, even by the internet’s standards. Donuts and mustard are probably one of the few ways you can ruin donuts.

Weird challenges like this work and get views that are nothing to sneeze at. How the filmmaker persuaded his dad to join in the fun is a bit of a mystery.

9 Not Chickening Out

Food challenges have become a popular publicity gimmick for many nationwide restaurants. There are even websites that list the restaurants that offer them. Yet, when you think about it, it’s a very strange thing to do. Some animals indeed stuff themselves with food, but they then take days to digest it or go into hibernation. Humans don’t have to do this; we just do it for fun.

Part of the fun is seeing if it’s actually possible, and with a giant plate of chicken fried steak, you can’t help but be skeptical at first.

In the challenge we feature, thousands have tried, but few have succeeded. I won’t spoil your fun by telling you how our presenter did, but however you look at it, it’s a bizarre thing to do.

8 Cop Over the Top

Cops don’t have an easy time of it. Their job demands a lot of them; they are under pressure and have to deal with the public at its worst in often dangerous situations. Yet we rightly expect them to meet the highest possible standards.

In this video, we see a cop reacting in a completely inappropriate way to the actual situation. His use of force seems bizarre given the apparent threat level, and certainly not something he would have learned in training.

Nowadays, when everyone is carrying a camera, such actions don’t go unrecorded. That clips like this one go viral in a matter of hours means that our police are under constant scrutiny. This is as it should be, but our outrage should, I believe, be tempered by an understanding that cops are only human.

7 Shark Attack!

” Baby Shark” is guaranteed to get toddlers singing along and dancing (and their parents wondering why they decided to have children). It’s more than a little strange that a video showing kids escaping from hungry sharks should be so popular. But the song is catchy, the dance is easy to learn, and it’s buoyant. The two children who feature in the video became immediate celebrities.

Pinkfong, a South Korean company, bears responsibility for this video, but the song has been around for a while. Apparently, versions of it were sung around campfires by young campers, and the song was inspired by the movie Jaws. You can hear the familiar Jaws theme in the opening bars of “Baby Shark.” The song first went viral in Indonesia and then quickly became a worldwide wonder.

The Baby Shark Dance is a YouTube phenomenon. It’s the most viewed video on the platform, with over 10 billion views (the first video to reach such a number). Given that not everyone has access to YouTube (it’s not available in China, for example), this must mean that some parents have probably been forced to play it on a loop. We can’t help but admire their patience and commitment.

6 The Punishment Fits

Some people who come up for sentencing before this Ohio judge must look forward to hearing his ruling. Take the teenager who saved herself some cash by not paying her cab driver. The judge gave her a choice between spending 30 days in jail (which seems a bit harsh) or walking thirty miles. Not surprisingly, she chose to walk.

A humane judge with a sense of humor handing out inventive sentences that fit the crime—what’s not to like? I like that he asked the girl what she would have done if she hadn’t gotten a cab. When she replied that she would have had to walk, the punishment suggested itself.

He’s saving taxpayer money and giving the perpetrators a lesson they won’t forget. It’s viral because it’s funny and gives viewers something to think about. It’s bizarre because we don’t expect judges to behave like this. Perhaps more should.

5 Crossing a Line

This one went viral for the wrong reasons, unfortunately. The cafe owners put their manager on the spot by asking him to speak in English. The manager gamely tries to do his best but is clearly not comfortable speaking a foreign language. The cafe is in Islamabad, Pakistan, so there isn’t much demand for an English-speaking manager. The reason why the owners are doing this is mostly that they are bored and think it’s funny. This is no excuse.

What they are doing is thoughtless and mean. They later apologized for posting the video, but the damage was done. The video, as you can see, is still available. It is, as we know, very difficult to take down content once it’s been posted.

The video is mercifully short and of poor quality. That people can be cruel will not be a surprise to anyone. What is weird about this one is why it went viral. I hope they at least apologized to the manager and that he’s found a better place to work.

4 Soaring Whale

This short, astonishing film would make a great screensaver. Apparently, no trick photography was involved. It’s strange because even though we understand what we’re seeing, it feels like we’re seeing something else, something impossible. In reality, the whale is swimming through luminescent algae that just look like stars.

It’s also very beautiful and the sort of clip that people would want to show their friends. But the film didn’t go viral immediately. It appeared on various platforms and then disappeared. A year later, it popped up on Twitter on the “Wonder of Science” account and garnered more than 3 million views.

The clip’s star is the whale, but the man who filmed it deserves recognition. The photographer is Mike Nulty, a man who describes himself on Twitter as “a writer, artist, and reluctant philosopher.” He leaves out the fact that he is a talented photographer.

3 Googling Grannie

We live in a world of technological wonders that, for many of us, can be difficult to grasp. This grandma does her best but can’t quite get the hang of her new smart speaker.

On one level, it seems that we are laughing at her, but we are laughing with her because we can all sympathize with her difficulties. At one point, she says that she is scared. This is probably a bit of an exaggeration as she handles the situation well and with considerable charm. However, you have to wonder why someone didn’t show her how to use her new device. Or, for that matter, why she didn’t throw it at the grandson who gave it to her.

Maria can also laugh at herself, as shown when she is invited to SteveTV. She becomes the star of the segment. Younger people who have grown up with new technology take advances in their stride. A lot of older people find this new world baffling.

What’s bizarre about this video is simply the fact that it reflects how much the world has changed in such a short span of time.

2 Teens Applaud Good Guy

This clip shows how creative people can be when selling second-hand stuff. In this example, teens react to some pretty strange commercials for used cars. The first is someone trying to offload his girlfriend’s 1996 Honda Accord. The car has 140,000 miles under its belt, and the guy asks for $500. But the commercial is so well produced that you would think he was selling a top-of-the-range Tesla.

It’s funny, and the seller has spent a lot of time and effort on the video. The result is truly bizarre. Curiously, the narrator tells us that bids on eBay for the car reached a whopping $150,000 before eBay withdrew it from sale because of “irregular bidding.” No, we don’t know what they meant by that either.

The other commercials in this clip are well worth watching too. The comments from the young people reviewing the commercials are often funny in themselves.

1 Climbing El Capitán

In California’s Yosemite National Park stands the granite mountain called El Capitán. One of its faces is nearly vertical and rises to almost 3,000 feet (915 meters). It’s a challenge that only the best climbers take on.

The peak remained unconquered until 1958, and all climbers since have treated the mountain with great respect. Climbing El Capitán requires detailed preparation. No matter which route they take, climbers must ensure that their equipment is in perfect condition and climb carefully—often taking 3 or 4 days to make it to the top.

Alex Honnold ensures that he knows exactly how to tackle any of his climbs. He had climbed El Capitán before and knew the Freerider route as well as anyone. The bizarre thing is that he then decided to climb it as a “free-solo” attempt.

Free-solo climbing means one climber goes up a rock face with no ropes. It’s just the climber and the climb. To free-solo climb a nearly vertical face of 3,000 feet is beyond eccentric; it’s almost crazy. But Honnold did it, and he did it in just under 4 hours.

As a footnote, Honnold’s mom decided to take up her son’s hobby at 60. She twice beat the record for the oldest woman to climb El Capitán—once at 66, then again at 70. No doubt she was sick and tired of worrying about Alex.