Every year, humanity is faced with various factors that influence life in one way or another. In the global sense, these are man-made disasters, atmospheric phenomena and natural disasters... But let’s not forget about the danger that awaits us at every step, accompanying us every minute. In this article we will talk about an invisible and little-studied threat - viruses.

Non-cellular life forms that bring death (virus - “poison”)

Viruses originated long before the advent of humanity. But people learned about them only in 1892 thanks to the research of a Russian scientist Ivanovsky Dmitry.

A very interesting fact is how a viral disease occurs - more precisely, how the virus enters our bodies. First, it attaches to the cell wall of some living organism, then inserts a hollow rod and introduces DNA or RNA. Loses its capsid (shell). Then it replicates the genome, multiplies, new viral particles are assembled from the genome, and finally the viruses exit the cell.

At the beginning of the article, it is advisable to touch upon interesting facts about the structure of viruses:

1. Genetic material – DNA or RNA. For example, mimivirus (a huge virus that is visible under a light microscope and is closer in size to bacteria) has both types of molecules;
2. Protein shell (capsid) , protecting genetic material.
3. This completes the structure of simple viruses. But complex viruses have, in addition to the above, additional lipid (fat) membranes.

There were a lot of viral proteins in the cells of a 3-day embryo, so much so that they were already beginning to unite into some kind of ready-made viral particles. Moreover, they influenced the activity of other embryonic genes: for example, the viral protein Rec increased the level of the IFITM1 protein, whose task is to sit on the surface of the cell and prevent viral infection from entering it. It turned out that the “household” virus protected the germ cells from its relatives.

The most dangerous group of viruses that can kill a person are filoviruses.

They can lead to dehydration and bleeding, resulting in death. The most common representative of this group is Ebola fever, as well as the less “popular” in our time, but deadly Marburg. Now both of these hemorrhagic fevers are breaking out, mainly in African countries (Uganda, Zaire, Sudan, etc.). The mortality rate is very high: once infected, a person will die with a probability of 50 to 90%.

Majority dangerous viruses enter the human body by airborne droplets. Exceptions: hepatitis, HIV, various types of herpes.

More than 200 types of viruses cause colds.

Some viruses can cause cancer in humans.

Instead of poison, the bracanid wasp injects its own “hand viruses” into the victim’s body , which have been helping these wasps live in the bodies of other insects for millions of years without being attacked by the hosts’ immune system. By the way, these insects are not afraid of nuclear war - they can withstand radiation up to 1800 Gray (a person needs 200 times less to die). In a post-apocalyptic future, these insects will reproduce unhindered and quickly mutate.

Inheritance of viruses occurs due to their entry into the germ cells of a man and a woman.

Researchers from the Gustav Rossi Institute under the leadership of Thierry Heidmann were able to be brought back to life in 2006 ancient virus "Phoenix", which infected the eggs and sperm of human ancestors many millions of years ago and managed to distribute numerous copies of its genetic material in the genome of our ancestors. This virus “came to life” in the realities of a 21st century laboratory and scientists noted that it not only penetrates the cell, but also integrates into DNA.

Interesting fact about viruses: a favorable environment for them is single-celled protozoa. Amoeba of a kind " kindergarten» for viruses. Here they can exchange information and transfer genes to each other.

HIV belongs to the group of RNA viruses. They are also called RETROVIRUSES. And thanks to another type of retrovirus, the Araucana chicken breed can boast of its unusual blue egg color. Despite this “suspicious feature,” they can be eaten.

We hope that the listed interesting facts about viruses were informative for you, our dear readers.

Viruses are not living things. They do not have cells, they do not know how to convert food into energy, and without a “host” they are just small clumps of chemicals.

Viruses, on the contrary, are not dead - they have genes, they reproduce, and the processes of natural selection operate for them.

Scientists struggled to detect viruses until 1892, when Russian microbiologist Dmitry Ivanovsky proved that tobacco plants were infected by creatures much smaller than bacteria. These creatures turned out to be a virus, specifically the tobacco mosaic virus.

American biochemist Wendel Stanley isolated the above tobacco virus in its pure form as needle-shaped protein crystals, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1946 in the field of chemistry.

Some viruses insert their DNA into bacteria through hollow hairs, which are present in many bacteria.

The word “virus” comes from a Latin word meaning “poison” or “dirty liquid,” which makes sense for a phenomenon that causes fevers and colds.

In 1992, scientists traced the source of pneumonia that broke out in England - it turned out that it was a virus hiding inside an amoeba living in the towers of a cooling tower. It was so large that at first scientists mistook it for a bacterium.

The so-called mimivirus is so named because it imitates the behavior and structure of a bacterium. Some experts believe that it is an intermediate link between bacteria and viruses, others are sure that it is separate form life. This virus is characterized by the most voluminous and complex set of DNA among all viruses.

The body of the mimivirus contains more than 900 genes that encode proteins that are not used in other viruses. Its genome is twice as large as others known viruses and even bacteria.

There are even larger viruses called mamavirus. Their size is larger than that of some bacteria, and these viruses also have satellite viruses, which are called Sputnik.

Amoebas are like sandboxes and soup kitchens for viruses - they absorb large objects within their reach and provide a source of nutrients for bacteria, which inside the amoeba exchange genes with other bacteria and viruses.

Viruses can infect animals, plants, fungi, single-celled organisms and bacteria. Mamaviruses, together with their companions, also infect other viruses.

We are all, perhaps, the result of the work of viruses, since a significant part of our genome contains “shards” and entire parts of viruses that penetrated into our ancestors millions of years ago and were “domesticated.”

Many of the formations in our cells are at first glance useless, which is also explained by the fact that these are viruses that have safely taken root inside us at different stages of evolution.

Most of the ancient viruses introduced into our genome do not exist in nature in our time. In 2005, French scientists began work on “resurrecting” one of these viruses.

One of the viruses resurrected in this way, code-named Phoenix, turned out to be non-viable. Apparently, not everything is so simple.

Some viral fragments in our genome are apparently responsible for the functioning of the autoimmune system and the development of cancer.

We owe our very life to viruses - some of the proteins encoded by viral DNA in the mother’s body “correct” the body’s immune system so that it does not attack the embryo during development.

We are all distant relatives on Earth. Scientists have reason to believe that a billion years ago one of the viruses entered a bacterial cell and from this a cell nucleus emerged, which subsequently led to the formation of a variety of flora and fauna, including you and me.

Viral electricity

Did you know that batteries are made not only using the achievements of physics and chemistry. Instead of the well-known graphite, lithium oxide with cobalt or manganese, or even the promising silicon nanoconductor, parts of batteries in the future may be made using biomolecular technologies.

In 2009, a group of scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology entered the Guinness Book of Records by developing the world's first battery, using genetically modified viruses to create positive and negative plates. This technology makes it possible to create a much more accurate (since viruses copy themselves perfectly accurately), “green” and efficient (according to experts, such batteries will be 10 times more capacious, and will be able to recharge more than 100 times more before will run out) technology.

320 thousand unknown viruses attack humanity

An international group of scientists has announced a frightening number of viruses that could be potentially dangerous to humans.

More than 320 thousand of these viruses live in the wild among mammals. Zoonotic viruses are unknown to science, which will significantly complicate the treatment process.

More than 70% of already known viruses, such as HIV (AIDS), West Nile fever, Ebola fever, SARS and influenza are transmitted from animals to humans.

“Over the past decades, we have faced the threat of pandemics without knowing how many more viruses are hidden in the wild,” says the executive scientific work, President of the non-profit organization EcoHealth Alliance Peter Daszak.

For modern virology, the discovery of new types of viruses is a big breakthrough. Previously it was believed that there were many more unknown viruses, up to several million. Now it is clear that there are only a few hundred thousand of them. This means that each virus will be easy and quick to study.

Scientists have already discovered and studied one of these viruses. It was found in the jungles of Bangladesh, where flying foxes (bats from the fruit bat family) live, which are natural carriers of the Nipah virus, the causative agent of encephalitis and respiratory diseases, writes the TopNews portal.

From 1,897 samples of biological material from foxes, scientists identified 55 viruses, only five of which were previously known. Ten of the 50 new viruses were found to be from the Nipah family. After which, using a statistical method, scientists concluded that there were three more unaccounted for rare viruses - thus, the figure increased to 58. After which, scientists distributed the number of unknown viruses among 5486 species of mammals and obtained an approximate number of previously unknown viruses. It amounted to 320 thousand. The figure is not final and can certainly increase.

Research and discovery of new viruses will require approximately $6.3 billion.

Copyright MBOU "Gymnasium 75", Kazan 2014

"I think, computer viruses should be considered as a form of life. This says a lot about human nature: the only form of life we ​​have created so far brings only destruction. We create life in our own image and likeness.” Stephen Hawking

Study

Research objectives:

To identify the level of knowledge of teachers and students of the gymnasium about biological and computer viruses, about methods of preventing and combating computer and biological viruses.

The most terrible epidemics

Few words in any language can cause as much horror, suffering and death as the word “plague.” Indeed, infectious diseases have caused enormous harm to people for centuries. They destroyed entire nations, took more lives than even wars sometimes could, and also played a decisive role in the course of history.

FYI

One day, Louis Pasteur, who was conducting experiments on infecting birds with chicken cholera, decided to go on vacation and left his assistant in the laboratory. He forgot to vaccinate the chickens and went on vacation himself. Returning, the assistant infected the chickens, which at first weakened, but then unexpectedly recovered. Thanks to this oversight, Pasteur realized that weakened bacteria are the key to getting rid of the disease, as they provide immunity from it, and became the founder of modern vaccination. Subsequently, he also created vaccinations against anthrax and rabies.

In 1859, an Australian farmer brought rabbits from England to create a small population and hunt them. The lack of natural enemies and ideal conditions for living and breeding year-round have caused the rabbit population to grow uncontrollably, leading to the extinction of many native plant species. They tried to fight the rabbits by shooting, blowing up holes, poisons, and building mesh barriers, but everything was useless. Finally, in the mid-20th century, the myxomatosis virus spread among them, reducing the population from 600 million to 100 million. However, the surviving individuals acquired genetic resistance to the virus and began to actively reproduce again.

In 1962, a laughter epidemic broke out in Tanzania, eventually affecting about 1,000 people. It started at a girls' school in the village of Kashasha - at first three students laughed, and soon most of the girls became infected with laughter. Each person's fits of laughter lasted from several hours to several days in a row. The school was soon temporarily closed, but the epidemic spread to other children and teenagers in 14 schools in nearby villages. The phenomenon finally disappeared 18 months after the first recorded cases.

A few decades ago, computer viruses were more of an urban legend than a real threat, but over the years the situation has changed dramatically. Nowadays, malware (popularly referred to as viruses) poses a major threat to everyone and everything - from governments and large international corporations to small businesses and Internet users.

Created by people ranging from experienced hackers to hobbyists and even children, computer viruses are malicious programs that - when executed - create copies of themselves by injecting themselves into the code of others computer programs, to data files or to boot sector hard drive.

Viruses often perform certain types of malicious activities on infected hosts: they “eat up” hard disk space, consume other system resources, gain access to confidential information, damage data structures, display political or humorous messages on the user’s screen, spam, install their own keyloggers (programs that record keystrokes on the keyboard) and much more.

There is no need to say that malware is a strong irritant, which, moreover, can lead to very sad consequences. Informed means armed, we thought and compiled for you a list of 25 interesting facts about computer viruses.

There is not a single person in the world who does not risk becoming the target of a virus attack (regardless of how powerful his antivirus is). Therefore, the more you know, the better.

25. The very first computer virus was Creeper, discovered on the ARPANET computer network, the predecessor of the Internet, in the early 1970s. It was an experimental self-moving program written in 1971 by Bob Thomas, an employee of BBN Technologies.

24. There are currently 3 main categories of malware: viruses, worms and Trojan horses. Although their behavior differs from each other, they are all built on the same basic commands and computer logic.

23. The typical malware creator is a male between the ages of 14 and 25. So far, only a few female virus program creators are known.

22. Almost 70% of virus creators work under contract for organized crime groups.

21. The Melissa macrovirus and network worm (March 1999) was so powerful that it forced Microsoft and other large companies to shut down their systems email until its complete destruction. The Melissa virus has broken all records for its speed of spread.

20. Before the advent of local computer networks, most viruses spread through various removable media, in particular through floppy disks. With the advent of the first personal computers most users regularly exchanged information and programs recorded on floppy disks.

19. According to the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report and Consumer Reports, 40% of US households are affected by computer viruses.

18. Amazon.com is the most exploited target for phishing attacks. It is followed by Apple and eBay.

17. The United States has the highest risk of being attacked by computer viruses, followed by Russia.

16. However, writing a computer virus is not considered illegal in the United States. Some other countries are starting to draft cybercrime laws that are stricter than those in the States.

In Germany, for example, the mass sharing of computer viruses for any reason is prohibited, and in Finland, writing malware has recently become illegal.

15. With the constant increase in the number of computer viruses and hackers, new types of computer crimes are emerging. Today, so-called cybercrime carries out a wide range of activities such as cyber terrorism, cyber extortion and cyber warfare.

14. Nowadays, more than 6,000 new computer viruses are created and launched every month.

13. The most destructive computer virus of all time was the MyDoom email worm. It caused $38 billion in damage. It spread quickly, infecting open networks and every computer with access to them. In 2004, this virus infected 25% of all emails.

12. Becoming a member of the famous international hacker network Anonymous is actually very easy. For this reason, only a few of them are elite hackers who are able to exploit security vulnerabilities in computer systems and write virus programs.

11. You will not infect your computer with a virus just by reading an email. The malware is activated only when you open a link or an infected email attachment.

10. It is estimated that up to 90% of emails contain malware.

9. By 1990, about 50 computer viruses were known. In the late 1990s, the number of viruses increased sharply to 48,000.

8. Some authors may actually be children who create them just to test their programming skills.

7. About 32% of all computers in the world (that is, almost every third computer) are infected with some kind of malware.

6. To discover its vulnerabilities, Facebook pays $500 to anyone who can hack the system.

5. Despite the best efforts of researchers and developers in the field of computer security, there is currently no antivirus program, which could detect all computer viruses.

4. Viruses can be written in a variety of programming languages, including assembly language, scripting languages ​​(such as Visual Basic or Perl), Java, and macro programming languages ​​(such as VBA).

3. One of the three main types of malware, Trojan horse, gets its name from the ancient Greek story of a wooden horse that was used to help Greek troops sneak into Troy.

2. Created by Filipino programmers Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman in 2000, the computer virus known as ILOVEYOU or LoveLetter became the most destructive virus in the world (making it into the Guinness Book of Records). It is estimated that the virus infected more than 3 million computers around the world.

1. Modern computer viruses cause billions of dollars in economic damage every year by causing system crashes, consuming computer system resources, corrupting data, increasing computer maintenance costs, and so on.

It's no secret that most modern diseases are associated with viruses.

Virus - This is a non-cellular infectious, tiny organism invisible even under a microscope. A virus appears when it is inside living cells.

Let's consider the most interesting facts about viruses.

The word “virus” itself has an origin similar in meaning to the term poison. If viruses are located at a distance from living carrier cells, then viruses are simply clumps consisting of chemical elements. Due to the fact that viruses do not have cells in their structure, they do not have the ability to convert food into energy.

Viruses have the unique ability to insert their DNA through tiny strips in hair into bacteria.

There are also fun facts about viruses , it is worth mentioning them too.

There is a unique breed of chickens, Araucana, whose eggs have an unusual color - blue or light green. The reason for this unusual color is a virus that infected chickens - a retrovirus. This virus introduces a gene into the DNA that increases the biliverdin content in egg shells. Despite this, the quality of the eggs remains good and can be eaten.

There was a larger outbreak of pneumonia in Britain that occurred in 1992.

For a long time, scientists struggled to find the cause of this outbreak, as a result of which they discovered that the virus quietly settled inside the amoebas. They were located on the roofs of cooling towers, which were used to cool the air.

Viruses that are large, large in size - mamaviruses, have sizes that most often exceed even bacteria in size. These viruses are equipped satellite viruses.

There is an opinion that people are a product of the functioning of viruses - a large component of the human genome contains “fragments” and even entire parts of viruses that got into our ancestors. Of course, this happened a long time ago, and these viruses, having become accustomed, became “homemade”.

Scientists suggest that there are also such fragments of viruses, which are in our gene have a purpose - the answer for the autoimmune system, which protects us from cancer.

Another interesting fact is that without the participation of viruses we would not have had a chance to be born, since without viruses our immune system would have attacked the embryo and prevented it from developing.

Over time, some of the viruses that entered our genome have disappeared from nature. Scientists in France are trying to resurrect some of these viruses.

Ebola is one of the most terrible viruses. Initial signs are fever, sore throat, as well as headache and muscle pain. Initially, these symptoms are similar to those of a cold or flu. Secondary signs are vomiting, diarrhea, and then damage to the kidneys and liver occurs; bleeding can be both external and internal.

Viruses are not living things. They don't have cells, they don't know how to convert food into energy, and without a “host” they are just small clumps of chemicals.

Viruses, on the contrary, are not dead - they have genes, they reproduce, and the processes of natural selection operate for them.

Scientists struggled to detect viruses until 1892, when Russian microbiologist Dmitry Ivanovsky proved that tobacco plants were infected by creatures much smaller than bacteria. These creatures turned out to be a virus, specifically the tobacco mosaic virus.

American biochemist Wendel Stanley isolated the above tobacco virus in its pure form as needle-shaped protein crystals, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1946 in the field of chemistry.

Some viruses insert their DNA into bacteria through hollow hairs, which are present in many bacteria.

The word “virus” comes from a Latin word meaning “poison” or “dirty liquid,” which makes sense for the phenomenon that causes fevers and colds.

In 1992, scientists traced the source of pneumonia that broke out in England - it turned out that it was a virus hiding inside an amoeba living in the towers of a cooling tower. It was so large that at first scientists mistook it for a bacterium.

The so-called mimivirus is so named because it imitates the behavior and structure of a bacterium. Some experts believe that it is an intermediate link between bacteria and viruses, others are sure that it is a separate form of life. This virus is characterized by the most voluminous and complex set of DNA among all viruses.

The body of the mimivirus contains more than 900 genes that encode proteins that are not used in other viruses. Its genome is twice as large as that of other known viruses and even bacteria.

There are even larger viruses called mamavirus. Their sizes are larger than those of some bacteria, and these viruses also have satellite viruses, which are called Sputnik.

Amoebas are like sandboxes and soup kitchens for viruses - they absorb large objects within their reach and provide a source of nutrients for bacteria, which inside the amoeba exchange genes with other bacteria and viruses.

Viruses can infect animals, plants, fungi, single-celled organisms and bacteria. Mamaviruses, together with their companions, also infect other viruses.

We are all, perhaps, the result of the work of viruses, since a significant part of our genome contains “shards” and entire parts of viruses that penetrated into our ancestors millions of years ago and were “domesticated.”

Many of the formations in our cells are at first glance useless, which is also explained by the fact that these are viruses that have successfully taken root inside us at different stages of evolution.

Most of the ancient viruses introduced into our genome do not exist in nature in our time. In 2005, French scientists began work on “resurrecting” one of these viruses.

One of the viruses resurrected in this way, code-named Phoenix, turned out to be non-viable. Apparently, not everything is so simple.

Some viral fragments in our genome are apparently responsible for the functioning of the autoimmune system and the development of cancer.

We owe our very life to viruses - some of the proteins encoded by viral DNA in the mother’s body “correct” the body’s immune system so that it does not attack the embryo during development.

We are all distant relatives on Earth. Scientists have reason to believe that a billion years ago one of the viruses entered a bacterial cell and from this a cell nucleus emerged, which subsequently led to the formation of a variety of flora and fauna, including you and me.