In the early, uncertain days of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists delivered one comforting pronouncement: The virus that caused COVID mutates rather slowly. If that remained true, the virus would ...

Viruses are the most diverse and abundant biological entities: they are widely known, fast-evolving, and have adapted to be able to infect all life forms. Despite this, their origin and evolutionary ...

Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat.

Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat.

Human behavior may have influenced the evolution of new strains of COVID-19, new AI models suggest. Vaccination and immune pressures from previous infections are known to cause the emergence of new ...

The influenza (flu) virus is constantly undergoing a process of evolution and adaptation through acquiring new mutations. Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have added a new layer of ...

Over the last century, a once-deadly mosquito-borne virus has evolved so that it no longer sickens humans. New research shows that changes in the virus's ability to target human cells paralleled the ...

D imaging reveals ancient phages virus with features dating back billions of years - and potential to fight today’s dangerous superbugs.

Viruses and their hosts—whether bacteria, animals, or humans—are locked in a constant evolutionary arms race. Cells evolve ...

A study published in Nature Medicine found that monkeypox viruses from the current outbreak have on average 50 differences in their DNA compared to the versions from about four years earlier. That’s ...

Mr. Quammen is a science writer and the author of the forthcoming book “Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus.” The Covid-19 pandemic has been a lesson in speed — the speed at which ...