A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer has plenty of “wow” moments. Shame about the lack of context and simplistic faith in science
I RECENTLY tried to explain to a radio talk-show host why I had just called a deadly virus “wonderful”. Look, I said, you have 20,000-odd genes and an astoundingly complex body. It has 10 genes and a shell. But it can evade your defences, use you to reproduce itself, and kill you – or maybe you won’t even feel it. Viruses are cool.
In his tenth book,A Planet of Viruses, American science writer Carl Zimmer
