There are more viruses than stars in the universe. Why do only some infect us?

Many years ago I heard or read there were billions of viruses in just a couple of drops of ocean water. OK I thought, but that will not stop me from swimming in the ocean. There is an interesting article that I will link which talks about just how many viruses there are known to be and how some can mutate and invade a human host.

An estimated 10 nonillion (10 to the 31st power) individual viruses exist on our planet—enough to assign one to every star in the universe 100 million times over.

Viruses infiltrate every aspect of our natural world, seething in seawater, drifting through the atmosphere, and lurking in miniscule motes of soil. Generally considered non-living entities, these pathogens can only replicate with the help of a host, and they are capable of hijacking organisms from every branch of the tree of life—including a multitude of human cells.

Yet, most of the time, our species manages to live in this virus-filled world relatively free of illness. The reason has less to do with the human body’s resilience to disease than the biological quirks of viruses themselves, says Sara Sawyer, a virologist and disease ecologist at the University of Colorado Boulder. These pathogens are extraordinarily picky about the cells they infect, and only an infinitesimally small fraction of the viruses that surround us actually pose any threat to humans.

The below quote is one of the reasons I do not put much faith in Flu shots or a shot for COVID-19 as there is and there is going to be several different strains of the virus. One shot does not fit all unless there is some kind of major break through which does not seem to be in the cards IMO.

Viruses with a lot of genetic flexibility, and particularly those that encode their genomes as RNA rather than DNA, are well-suited to crossing the species divide. Compared to viruses and cells that rely on DNA, RNA viruses tend to be sloppy when copying over their genetic code, introducing mutations at a high rate. This error-prone process creates an immense amount of diversity into populations of RNA viruses, allowing them to adapt to new environments—including new host species—at a rapid pace, says Sarah Zohdy, a disease ecologist at Auburn University.

Of the pathogens that have infected the human population in recent decades, the majority have been RNA viruses, including Ebola, SARS, MERS, Zika, several influenza viruses, and SARS-CoV-2.

www.nationalgeographic.com...

Nearly 10 percent of the human genome is made of bits of virus DNA-


So, if there would not be viruses, would we be here now writing to ATS ?


I, virus: Why you're only half human


So we have a Global lockdown because of one virus ? Even when we are made of virus DNA .

Dang dudes...didn't know that

Floored....ok viruses ...we are swimming in em....

a reply to: Kenzo

I think you misunderstand what a virus is and the link with our genome. This link to Wiki should help you understand what you mean by

Nearly 10 percent of the human genome is made of bits of virus DNA.

Just because our DNA contains relics of past infections, does not mean that the current Covid-19 is not a threat. You are conflating two separate things. But hey, you got starred for it!

I just want to say that your title is wrong.. there are NOT more viruses then stars in our universe




There are 100 billion stars in the milky way alone in October 2016, an article in Science (based on deep-field images from the Hubble Space Telescope) suggested that there are about 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe

2 trillion times 100 billion stars.. just in our observable universe

originally posted by: Spacespider
I just want to say that your title is wrong.. there are NOT more viruses then stars in our universe

There are 100 billion stars in the milky way alone in October 2016, an article in Science (based on deep-field images from the Hubble Space Telescope) suggested that there are about 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe

2 trillion times 100 billion stars.. just in our observable universe

Perhaps the title should have said "individual viruses" which is what the OP linked article says, but you haven't shown the title is wrong other than that omission.

"2 trillion times 100 billion stars" is 10 to the 23rd power (times 2) stars. The OP linked article says there are 10 to the 31st power of individual viruses.

The video you posted changed the subject. It's not talking about all individual viruses, it's only talking about a limited subgroup of viruses (those which can infect mammals), so of course if you're only talking about a subgroup, the number will be smaller than the total.

As for the omission of the word "individual", that can make a difference. For example there are 7 billion individual people in the single species homo sapiens, so the number of individual viruses will likewise be significantly larger than the number of virus types.

Viruses are a necessary part of this world, so are most microbes that are natural. The unnatural ones, forced evolution by unnatural chemicals in the environment, are a threat to this ecosystem that will bring us down. Global warming is nothing compared to what science is creating, even genetically modifying plants forces alteration of the viruses

Scientists need to think things over more and be way more cautious than they are, money, financing, and prestige is clouding their perception of safety.

viruses are also responsible for thought too, without an ancient virus we'd still be dumb creatures with no self awareness, just look how the brain sends information and chemicals, it's almost exactly how viruses communicate.

either way there are alot of teh little buggers LORD who would have thought !
Counting Virus as alive earth goes from 1 - 10 Million species To well I cant wright the number lol
Mind officially Blown