- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
-
Introduction: Life’s Sensibilities -
1 Valuable Viruses -
2 More Like a Waterfall -
3 Alarmones -
4 Early Sensibilities -
5 Smart Bacteria -
6 Ancient Architects -
7 Others -
8 Nested Communities -
9 Cosmic Rhythms of Life -
10 Life’s Tectonics -
11 Evolutionary Illumination -
12 Symbiogenesis in Russia -
13 From Movement to Sensation -
14 Packaging DNA -
15 Lemurs and Split Chromosomes -
16 Interspecies Hybrids -
17 Origins of the Immune System -
18 Medical Symbiotics -
19 Animal Consciousness -
20 Brains and Symbols -
21 Thermodynamics and Thought -
22 “I Know Who You Are; I Know Where You Live” -
23 Cultural Networks - Bibliography
-
Appendix A: Major Groups of Living Organisms -
Appendix B: The International Geological Time Scale (Time-Rock Divisions) - Glossary
- About the Authors
- Index
- [UNTITLED]
Valuable Viruses
Valuable Viruses
- Chapter:
- (p.16) (p.17) 1 Valuable Viruses
- Source:
- Chimeras and Consciousness
- Author(s):
Frank P. Ryan
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
This chapter introduces the viruses—biological entities so small they are not even selves. It analyzes how viruses, although not autopoietic entities nor alive, promote healthy life by engaging in “cyclical symbioses.” It evaluates cyclical symbioses: how viruses move genes into and then out of living cells and whole organisms. This chapter shows that the recent insight into viruses and their potential in symbiosis as part of “self” offers exciting new possibilities for research. It suggests that viruses are still fundamental to genetic fusions across disparate taxa lineages and in the origin of sensation in cells and organisms.
Keywords: viruses, cyclical symbioses, genes, living cells, organisms, genetic fusions, taxa lineages
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- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
-
Introduction: Life’s Sensibilities -
1 Valuable Viruses -
2 More Like a Waterfall -
3 Alarmones -
4 Early Sensibilities -
5 Smart Bacteria -
6 Ancient Architects -
7 Others -
8 Nested Communities -
9 Cosmic Rhythms of Life -
10 Life’s Tectonics -
11 Evolutionary Illumination -
12 Symbiogenesis in Russia -
13 From Movement to Sensation -
14 Packaging DNA -
15 Lemurs and Split Chromosomes -
16 Interspecies Hybrids -
17 Origins of the Immune System -
18 Medical Symbiotics -
19 Animal Consciousness -
20 Brains and Symbols -
21 Thermodynamics and Thought -
22 “I Know Who You Are; I Know Where You Live” -
23 Cultural Networks - Bibliography
-
Appendix A: Major Groups of Living Organisms -
Appendix B: The International Geological Time Scale (Time-Rock Divisions) - Glossary
- About the Authors
- Index
- [UNTITLED]