From Matt Palmer
You say viruses are “as old as life itself, if not older” (8 May, p 16).
I thought that the definition of a virus was essentially that its genetic material relies on other organisms to reproduce. So how did these early viruses manage to pre-date life itself, before there was a convenient organism to hijack in order to reproduce?
The editor writes:
• It all depends on what you mean by “life”. Viruses could have piggybacked on even the incomplete metabolisms of pre-cellular, er, life.
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Richmond, Surrey, UK
