Invisible pages from nature's textbook

Microorganisms have a lot of tricks up their sleeve. From expressing more efflux pumps, to zombifying their hosts they have numerous strategies that leave us feeling "Hey, I should have thought about it"! Some viruses aid in making you more susceptible to mosquito bites: "Acetophenone is made by some Bacillus bacteria that grow on human (and mouse) skin. Normally skin produces an antimicrobial peptide that keeps Bacillus populations in check. But it turns out that when mice are infected with dengue and Zika, they don't produce as much of the antimicrobial peptide, and the Bacillus grows faster." [1] Hong Zhang, Yibin Zhu, Ziwen Liu, Yongmei Peng, Wenyu Peng, Liangqin Tong, Jinglin Wang, Qiyong Liu, Penghua Wang, Gong Cheng. A volatile from the skin microbiota of flavivirus-infected hosts promotes mosquito attractiveness . Cell , 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.05.016

A new variant of the corona virus has been out there with the common name Omicron (strain: B.1.1.529) believed to be out from South Africa. A few medical experts believe in booster doses to already vaccinated people. In a recent seminar that I attended, the CEO of a company gave this analogy where he compared the vaccination as a helmet on a rider. "Let us say a truck is driving in the opposite direction, the best way to ensure survival would be to drive rather safe to avoid its path than to wear a safer helmet." The Indian subcontinent is doing its best against the war on their invisible enemies and also their foes. Several people may have different views on this subject but this is an opinion. The government registered the use of a few more vaccines and medics onto the war-zone. A few more vaccines have been recently accepted ( continued from... ): 6. Covovax : licenced by Novavax (US) and produced by SII (Ierum Institute of India) is the 9th vaccine listed by the WH...

The genome of SARS-CoV-2 consists of an mRNA single strand, packed at the heart of the virus, is the primary construct for its replication. The sequence contains information necessary for constructing the viral machinery proteins by the process known as translation. Below is an image showing the several viral proteins coded by the genetic material that is present in the virus [ ref ].   The physical structure of the virus that is made by several proteins is shown in the image [ ref ]. These proteins make up the structural machinery of the protein. The remaining viral machinery are called non-structural proteins (NSP) that are necessary for functions such as polymerization, inhibition, proof reading and many other that allow the virus to infect and replicate in host organisms. The use of the terms mutants, variants and strains have become quite frequent in the news that we hear today. These phenomenon occur due to the process called recombination . Simply put, recombination i...

Science is the cognitive thought of a pack of beings. It will never stop being pursued even if ONE wants it to. The progression of science is to mold it into something new every day. Science is always intriguing when it is new. The coronavirus pandemic struck the global earth population like the plague in a rat's nest. Today, an year after the origin of this invisible enemy, after millions lost their life in the spike of this universal antagonist, there is a ray of hope that everyone has been eagerly waiting for. Science has paved its research into a source of global calm. Vaccines are in their final stages of approval and have already begun being administered to the global population in order to prepare the human immune system to wage the bloody war . Several preventive-cure, vaccines for the COVID pandemic have been brought to light. --- Popular vaccines in order of their approval and human administration are: 1. Sputnik V - (DNA of a SARS-CoV-2 type adenovirus)     ...

Albeit the war on the invisible enemy rages on, it is worthwhile to rethink our economy and discuss the preservation of this home planet for the better living of our future generations. In this world where the rich become richer and the poor remain poor, there is very little concern from our fellow people about the impact of human activities on mother nature. Yes, the rich and the governments are responsible for all the bigotry within us, but let us rethink a simple relationship that strains our environment. The root cause for the surge in our impact on this environment is by overpopulation. The poor are densely populated seeking jobs that are not existent and the rich are sparsely populated determined not to share their wealth. This increases the dependence of both populations on nature to provide a better home.  Now imagine a selected small area that is so densely populated that any good change brought about here can have a large impact on most environmental problems around the g...

The blue planet is a sustainable and suitable living space provided to all living species shielded by the balance that is being maintained by nature. For a long time, I have been poking at the subject of a balance that nature is trying to preserve. This balance is a sort of dynamic equilibrium, a consort of energies defining the philosophical capacity of any entity at a particular time. Most spiritual learnings have come to understand the belief that one reaps what they sow. Likewise, nature would treat one the same way they treat her. This helps constitute the philosophical balance.  Every member of the earth's biodiversity constitutes a balance in nature. The presence of an entity in this universe is balanced by the absence of another. Though scientifically not comprehensible yet, from our past, we humans tend to understand and observe the work of mother nature. She cares for those who need it and shelters those who don't.  With power also comes responsibility. The bala...

The surface area of the earth is about half a billion square kilometres. Mother nature brought humans into existence on this expanse and allowed them to co-exist with her other creations. Over the years, humans have become adept to tackle the forces of nature and have evolved into civilised beings. However, the civilisation has run its course. Time has shown that mankind is not just a substantial threat to his surroundings but to himself also. Current environmental affairs such as the flaring pandemic, climate change, biodiversity loss and others are a consequence of humans disturbing the balance that nature tries to protect. The balance by nature will be restored at any cost, even if it has to be the end of humanity as we know it, but this is obviously not something we strive for. We have been given opportunities to mend our ways and it is time to learn about our impact on the balance. The governments and leaders who lead the politically divided nations should stand united to pr...

It is true that humans are having one of the worst years in recent history and it is majorly caused by the coronavirus pandemic. China is a huge player in this current global situation. An openly known secret is that they have been covering up any traces leading back to some undisclosed truth. Whether the virus is a successful manmade attempt to bring about a global economic crisis, an unethical human trial gone rouge or a man-made bioweapon are all speculations only until we know what is needed to be uncovered. Currently, China ranks quite poorly on total cases of COVID-19 which seems to be surprising since it is the origin of the virus and the only country which stands to benefit largely from the situation economically and diplomatically. The situation also provides a strategic advantage to the country in altering global demographics. It is false to understand that China is a proven culprit behind the flaring virus but they have piqued enough dominos to gamble out theories which ar...

Today, the SARS-CoV-2 has spread to about 210 countries with close to 3 million active cases. Of those cases that have obtained an outcome, 81% of the patients have recovered but the remaining have failed to survive the dreaded coronavirus pandemic. It has been observed that patients aged over 65 years, those with lowered immunity or any chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are more susceptible to death caused due to COVID-19. Of the active cases today, about 3% face severity in the symptoms of the illness and are moved to critical units for observation and recovery. Although these numbers provide us with a general trend to analyse the nature of infection by the virus, it is not accurate and does not entirely provide the actual picture. Reasons for this include insufficient testing, non-inclusion of fatalities without testing, scenarios where governments refrain from testing or providing information and also specific cases like the incorrect number of cases reported ...

The nCoV-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is much like a warrior that mother nature has begotten to reclaim what her child has been plundering. She doesn't need to do it, but every now and then he forgets his place. He is mankind, her dearest child of all creation that is more brilliant and ferocious than any other. He realises that he has lost the battle, but its time to win the war. The war against the deadly virus and a cure to heal them all.  Let's get down to the science. This virus comes armed with a lethal trimeric spike protein that interferes with porphyrin in RBCs. The membrane of this virus packs envelope proteins that aid in shielding the RNA within. The RNA codes for a protease that is involved in active replication within host cells. Thanks to leaps in technology we already have solved crystal and Cryo-EM structures of the protease and its spike protein. A detailed list of all their structures can be found here . Several researchers have studied the morphology of infected ho...

The nCoV-19 (novel-Corona Virus 2019) epidemic that originated from Wuhan, China is now a pandemic. A recent update from the WHO reported that more than 146 countries have been affected. The coronavirus that causes SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is communicable through contact with an infected person or touching surfaces harbouring droplets from an infected person. The symptoms of the infection might not appear up to at least 14 days (2 weeks) in humans. In December 2019,  Dr Li Wenliang a 29-year-old whistleblower tried warning the public to prepare for such an outbreak on social media. The doctor was warned by local officials from spreading any such news. China's government ignored and buried any evidence of the warning and were definitely not prepared for the outbreak. The first case of the virus was reported in Hubei province of China on the 11th January 2020, a month before the surge in cases during Jan-Feb 2020. Japan and Thailand were the first hosts to t...

I haven't posted anything here for a long time. I started out this blog in the hope to resurrect it someday when I was eligible enough to discuss the topic. I need a hobby, and writing about what I am passionate about helps me. This idea about writing on biological evils, the kind of biological war between humans and other humans or between humans and nature is well documented by experts. Here, I would like to discuss my naive perspective of it. I also get my inspiration from reading books, news, sitcoms, and movies.  Update [7 Sept 2021]: The movie Contagion was released in 2011. Nobody cared about it. People believed that it was a very unlikely event and the extent of reality in the movie had lost all its meaning. However, looking at current day events, the reality is far from what was fiction a few years ago. Watching the movie World War Z (WWZ) is quite amusing to me. I don't just mean the cinematography, story, acting, or visual effects, what I really like about it is the...

Don't get me wrong I do appreciate spreading the blog alike a virus. This is a viral blog, in the sense, we will mostly discuss viral (biological) episodes and other biological disasters that man is not always ready to deal with. We should be up and running in no time. Meanwhile, beware of all those organisms, they are everywhere and can do everything. While some of them are bad for us and harm us, some are badass and help us: digesting our food, preparing biological products like antibiotics, pharmaceutical products, some help in cleaning up oil spills and many other. Sundays are a great time for me to catch up on my blog writing. I realise that Sundays are not the best time to work or do anything serious. Weekends are not easy for me. Until I build a strong passionate need and have enough experience to discuss interesting topics I will be out there exploring the world and building my career in a field where I can contribute to this fight against our invisible enemies. ...