Viruses help make up our world. More than that, they help make us.
Because they’re so important in real life, I find myself studying viruses for science fiction.
I’ve researched how they are used in gene therapy, how they adapt to alien species, and how they make people sick. In my currently developing novel–which is an explicitly erotic romance, but hey, Science!–I wanted to know how artificial viruses might affect cyborgs.
Sometimes, they research turns into fascinating distractions. Let’s not even go into how the middle of my novel centers around STI testing. (Why?! It’s okay. There’s sexy time and drama at the testing site.) Let’s pretend that every year, certain types of viruses don’t attempt to put us down on our backs and mess with productivity.
What I mean is that, sometimes, what scientists discover about viruses is their beauty.
Huffington Post presents microscopic images of dangerous viruses in “These 12 Viruses Look Beautiful Up Close But Would Kill You If They Could“. It’s hard not to marvel at the diverse complexity of these little buggers.
By the way, the image in this post’s header is the simian virus, found in both monkeys and humans, and not a bunch of succulents.
So, there you go: A starting place for more than you needed to know about viruses. Happy World-building Wednesday!
Last week’s post focused on fantasy and romance. This week is about maybe-not-romantic science. Tell me if you would like to see, and I’ll do my best to give you what you want.
Shadow Fals 