num_pages: 350
description: A fascinating and long overdue examination of viruses  from what they are and what they do to the vital role they have played in human history.What are viruses? Do they rely on genes like all other forms of life? Do they follow the same patterns of evolution as plants and animals?Frank Ryan answers these questions and many more in a sweeping tour of illnesses caused by viruses. For example the common cold measles chicken pox herpes and mumps rubella as well as less familiar examples such as rabies breakbone fever hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola and virus-induced cancers. Along the way readers will learn about the behaviors and ultimate goals of viruses gaining a deeper understanding of their importance in relation to the origins and the evolution of life as well as they ways viruses have changed us at the most intimate level to help make us quintessentially human.
language: English
title: Virusphere
publisher: Prometheus