Some viruses mutate more rapidly than others. Learn more about why that is and what that means for your health.

Most of the articles on this blog have talked about evolution as though it were somehow distant, something that happens to unfamiliar organisms and doesn't really affect our daily lives. Nothing could ...

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 ...

Guillermo Dominguez Huerta, Science Consultant in Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Ahmed Zayed, Research Scientist in Microbiology, The Ohio State University, James Wainaina, Postdoctoral ...

Researchers studying strains of a lethal canine virus and a related human virus have determined why the canine virus was able to spread so quickly from cats to dogs, and then from sick dogs to healthy ...

WASHINGTON, DC – January 11, 2005 -- Although viruses technically may not be alive, their contribution to the dynamic web of life is undeniable. A new book, published by ASM Press, focuses on the role ...

Researchers uncover the evolution of the hepatitis B virus since the Early Holocene by analyzing the largest dataset of ancient viral genomes produced to date. The hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major ...

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 ...

The myxoma virus, fatal to millions of Australian rabbits, is a textbook example of the unexpected twists in the evolution of viruses and their hosts. By Carl Zimmer As the Covid death rate worldwide ...

SARS-CoV-2 seems to be constantly changing. In the span of just two years, alpha, beta, delta, lambda, mu and omicron have all made headlines. And that list doesn't include dozens of other variants ...