• Question: why do u like viruses so much, we get horrible diseases from them?!

    Asked by talaguras313 to Lewis, Ian on 11 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      I don’t like viruses (I have a cold at the moment)! My research is with apes and monkeys. It is very interesting that there are some viruses that can be transferred between humans and other primates, so sometimes if I have a cold I won’t be allowed to work with them (or I will have to wear a face mask) in case I infect them with my human lurgy!

    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      I could have sworn I’d answered this one – sorry it’s taken so long. I probably hit send just as my internet connection at home broke ( I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it ).

      I don’t like viruses so much as I like studying them which is slightly different. They’re amazing things to look at and despite being so simple can be really complicated things to understand. As well as viruses we can catch and make us ill there are many that might make the jump from other animals to humans and we need to understand them in case that happens ( it happens with flu a lot ). Most viruses actually attack bacteria and they could be really useful as replacements for antibiotics as long as we understand them well enough to know how to use them.

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