In 1898, Martinus Bergerinck proved through filtration experiments that the pathogen of tobacco mosaic disease was smaller than the bacteria, and thus deduced the existence of the virus.
Today, more than 120 years later, people generally think that viruses are not a kind of life, and that viruses are neither living things nor non-living things, and classify viruses as quasi-organisms.
But it is undeniable that wherever there is life, there is a virus.
Viruses have brought endless troubles to mankind. The memories that viruses leave on mankind are almost all painful memories. It is an invisible and cunning enemy.
Since the discovery of the first virus by Martinus Bergerinck, more than 5,000 types of viruses have been identified.
Although viruses are a very cunning and invisible enemy, their composition is very simple. They are usually composed of two to three components: genetic material RNA or DNA, and a capsid formed by protein, which is used to wrap and protect the genetic material. Some viruses can form a lipid envelope around the outside when they reach the cell surface. Viruses have different shapes, from simple spiral and icosahedral shapes to complex structures. Virus particles are about one thousandth the size of bacteria.
According to the World Health Organization’s list of pathogens related to epidemics and pandemic diseases, there are a total of 23 pathogens, of which 19 are viruses.
It can be seen that viruses are not only related to life, but also life-threatening.
Viruses generally have the following characteristics:
- The body is small, with relatively primitive life forms and life characteristics, and lacks cell structure;
- Only one type of nucleic acid, DNA or RNA;
- Rely on its own nucleic acid for replication, DNA or RNA contains genetic information necessary for replication and assembly of progeny viruses;
- Lack of a complete enzyme and energy system;
- Strict intracellular parasitism, no virus can leave the host cell to replicate and proliferate independently.
Obviously, self-replication and parasitism are the core characteristics of a virus. Without life that can be attached to, it has no life at all, but once it attaches to a living body, the virus is very likely to bring destruction to life. This may be why we cannot attribute it to life, whether it is because of the virus’s involuntary life characteristics, or the pain or hatred it brings to humans.
According to the study of paleontologists, about 3.6 billion years ago, the first living cells were produced.
But the virus was born before the first living cell, that is to say, the virus has a history of at least 3.6 billion years.
Virus, a creature that has existed for at least 3.6 billion years, never imagined that in the 1980s, it also played cross-border.
In 1981, the first computer virus was born. It is a Mac virus, but it does not damage data.
What’s interesting is that after Martinus Bergerinck discovered the first biological virus, the name given to it is virus, and today’s computer viruses also use this name. In order to distinguish biological viruses, they are often prefixed with computer.
However, in the Internet age, if it weren’t for the flu, SARS virus, and the new crown virus from time to time to brush up on our sense of existence, we almost directly regarded the virus as a computer virus.
When we talk about antivirus, we often talk about computer viruses, not biological viruses.
This does not seem to be a coincidence.
As early as 1949, several years before the appearance of the first commercial computer, the computer pioneer German scientist John Von Neumann presented a paper “Theory and Organization of Complex Automatic Devices”. In Progress, the blueprint of the virus program was outlined. At that time, most computer experts could not imagine that such a self-reproducing program was possible.
But today, computer viruses, like biological viruses, have become synonymous with destruction. It’s just that it’s not life that’s destroyed this time, but something that no one thinks has life——the computers.
But who would dare to say that computers in the future will not have life? Aren’t biological viruses also born before the birth of the first cell?
Now that there are computer viruses, will the future computers also evolve into life?
However, this time of evolution may not take 3.6 billion years!