At long last, we may be returning to the original two-sided sense of the word virus, which originally signified either a life-giving substance or a deadly venom. Viruses are indeed exquisitely deadly, but they have provided the world with some of its most important innovations. Creation and destruction join together once more.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the dual nature of viruses as both harmful and beneficial to innovation.
Carl Zimmer's quote emphasizes the complex nature of viruses, highlighting that while they can be deadly agents of disease, they have also played a significant role in driving scientific progress and innovation. This duality represents a fundamental aspect of many elements in nature, where creation and destruction coexist, leading to new discoveries and advancements. By pointing out this duality, Zimmer invites us to reconsider our understanding of viruses and their impact on life and science.
In practice
In a presentation about the role of viruses in biotechnology, one might use this quote to illustrate their positive contributions.
Researchers keep identifying new species, but they have no idea about the life cycle of a given species or its other hosts. They cut open an animal and find a new species. Where did it come from? What effect does it have on its host? What is its next host? They don't know and they don't have time to find out, because there are too many other species waiting to be discovered and described.
The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from an investigation of the governing physics.
Japan is a model already to the lie that economic growth is the key to our future. If they can really show an alternative to nukes and fossil fuels, then they will be the poster boy for the renewable energy for the future.
Economics is in many respects the queen of the soft sciences. It's expected to be better than the rest. It's my view that economics is better at the multi-disciplinary stuff than the rest of the soft science. And it's also my view that it's still lousy.
Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come . . . . Our universe is a sorry little affair unless it has in it something for every age to investigate.
In the Radiation Laboratory we count it a privilege to do everything we can to assist our medical colleagues in the application of these new tools to the problems of human suffering.
I have experimental evidence that time travel is not possible.
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