On episode #93 of the podcast This Week in Virology, Vincent, Alan, and Rich answer listener questions about lab procedures, prokaryotes, endogenous retroviruses, the iPad and teaching, prions, mimivirus, splitting water with viruses, and the polio outbreak in Tajikistan.

Host links Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, and Rich Condit

Links for this episode:

• Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA)
• SIGA responds to BARDA request for smallpox antiviral
• BARDA contract for filovirus vaccine
• What is a Ph.D? (pdf)
• HHMI resources for early career scientists
• Pace article on abandoning prokaryote (Nature)
• Three domains of life (Forterre article)
• Mechanoenzymatic cleavage of Von Willebrand's factor (Science)
• Splitting water with viruses
• WHO coverage on Tajikstan polio outbreak
• Wild type polio infection in immunized Indian children (JID)
• Letters read on TWiV 93

Weekly science picks:

Alan - Southern Fried Science Rich - Tree of Life web project Vincent - Dickson Despommier at Big Think