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Question
How did viruses originate?
No one knows how viruses originated. Indeed, there is some dispute as to whether viruses are even alive since they require a host cell to reproduce or to perform most of their biochemical functions. Some scientists have suggested that the first life forms might have been similar to the viruses. It is more likely, however, that viruses evolved from the population of microbes, as core genetic material that is capable in its inert form of being dried or frozen, but which retains the ability to "come to life" when it invades a suitable host cell.
David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
March 29, 2005
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