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.
We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.
I like to think that Einstein would look at string theory’s journey and smile, enjoying the theory’s remarkable geometrical features while feeling kinship with fellow travelers on the long and winding road toward unification.
All the scientists who are working on solving the problem of curing paralysis say that it won't do you any good if you don't keep your body in shape.
In experimental philosophy, propositions gathered from phenomena by induction should be considered either exactly or very nearly true notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses, until yet other phenomena make such propositions either more exact or liable to exceptions.
The first mission to Mars did not expect to find craters and river valleys, and yet they did. The first mission to Jupiter didn't expect to find ocean worlds and volcano worlds, but they did.
If there is any kind of animal which is female and has no male separate from it, it is possible that this may generate a young one from itself. No instance of this worthy of any credit has been observed up to the present at any rate, but one case in the class of fishes makes us hesitate. No male of the so-called erythrinus has ever yet been seen, but females, and specimens full of roe, have been seen. Of this, however, we have as yet no proof worthy of credit.
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