
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


The definition of life is in flux, complexity is overrated, and humans are shrinking.
Viruses are supposed to be sleek, pared-down, dead-eyed machines. But when one microbiologist stumbled upon a GIANT virus, hundreds of times bigger than any seen before, all that went out the window. The discovery opened the door not only to a new cast of microscopic characters with names like Mimivirus, Mamavirus, and Megavirus, but also to basic questions: How did we miss these until now? Have they been around since the beginning? What if evolution could go … backwards?
By WNYC Studios4.6
4222942,229 ratings
The definition of life is in flux, complexity is overrated, and humans are shrinking.
Viruses are supposed to be sleek, pared-down, dead-eyed machines. But when one microbiologist stumbled upon a GIANT virus, hundreds of times bigger than any seen before, all that went out the window. The discovery opened the door not only to a new cast of microscopic characters with names like Mimivirus, Mamavirus, and Megavirus, but also to basic questions: How did we miss these until now? Have they been around since the beginning? What if evolution could go … backwards?

90,931 Listeners

21,957 Listeners

32,007 Listeners

38,493 Listeners

30,681 Listeners

43,563 Listeners

38,828 Listeners

27,173 Listeners

21,622 Listeners

26,233 Listeners

11,646 Listeners

14,487 Listeners

12,222 Listeners

6,405 Listeners

16,362 Listeners

16,405 Listeners

471 Listeners

1,130 Listeners