According to DNA, You're Half-Human, Half-Virus

According to DNA, You're Half-Human, Half-Virus

www.disinfo.com

...All in all, the virus-like components of the human genome amount to almost half of our DNA. This would once have been dismissed as mere “junk DNA”, but we now know that some of it plays a critical role in our biology. As to the origins and function of the rest, we simply do not know.

The human genome therefore presents us with a paradox. How does this viral DNA come to be there? What role has it played in our evolution, and what is it doing to our physiology? To answer these questions we need to deconstruct the origins of the human genome — a story more fantastic than anything we p

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.newscientist.com

Humans are made up of half viruses literally? considering that virus' themselves are a borderline lifeform this is really strange. What does this mean for people? How easy is it to re program our dna if its half virus'? Saying humans are a virus on the planet takes on a whole new meaning here. This headlline shocks me to be honest. (If this has been posted elsewhere feel free to remove or delete but the search i did didnt reveal this story on ATS)>

www.disinfo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

it makes sense.

reminds me of the Matrix(yes, another Matrix comparisson).

"You know who else shares these traits, a Virus".."you are like a plague, a disease"

we do consume everything till theres nothing left, we use all of our resources without thinkin about the consequences. We kill eachother in order to survive.

weird.

[edit on 1-2-2010 by Common Good]

Life feeds on life- so our viral component probably helps us extinguish the forests of life like a wildfire better. And is doing a seemingly good job overcoming the self-sacrificing aspects of creation.

Edit: Not to say that it doesn't feel bad about it, or has concerns about going to "hell" for it or anything..

[edit on 1-2-2010 by thaknobodi]

Excuse my ignorance on this subject but isn’t it just stating the obvious??

Do we not share DNA with ALL life on earth? I heard somewhere that we have 95% the same DNA as pigs and 64% the same as Bananas! Doesn’t mean that we are Bananas.

I openly admit to not being particularly knowledgeable or educated on this subject, but to me this sounds like the sort of sensationalist stuff that gets picked up by the tabloid newspapers when they want to fill a gap!

Obviously it is also something that will be jumped on by the "all humans are evil" brigade, without actually thinking about it!

Sorry... just my uneducated opinion

According to the New Scientist article we have this virus in our so called "junk" DNA as a result of a kind of co-evolution with plague viruses throughout history. Basically since retroviruses can interject their code into our genes it selects for people who can survive these plagues, and in some cases pass it on to their offspring. So in a strange sense Humans are not entirely human. It brings up the question of how easy is it to get new genes into a human or a human population, using viruses, and , because this is ATS, this topic brings up questions of possible deliberate alien contanminations via viral infection in the past (present?). All I am saying is that as a delivery system it has much more to recomend it than abducting people indidvidually and tinkering with them. I think this new biological data has to affect not one but several "conspiracy" theories ; though at this time I admit I can't really see all of the implications. Could what we think of as humanity have been released AS a virus at one time? with apes being the main vector? Could it be a process in action at this point still?

reply to post by Muckster


I respectfully disagree that it is a sensationalist topic. It appears to me to be a legitimate, even logical result in hindsight. there is only one genetic system on earth as far as we know. I think a more to point question would be how much our animal friends are also composed of viruses. I do not myself subscribe to the idea that humans are apart from nature per se or intrinsically evil (though there is much to recomend the latter) but the degree and amount to which we may have literally been formed BY viruses is disturbing. Say we had another million years in which to evolve - would we be then 80-90 percent virus?

[edit on 1-2-2010 by liquidself]

Good find. S&F.

But, it's sort of old news: We're considered to be a supra-organism (or super-organism) - meaning we're made up of a whole bunch of cooperating, interracting and inter-dependent microbes and viruses, just like other complex lifeforms.

Good questions re: what it means to evolution. ...and in this light, are vaccines really such a good idea? ...do we really want to loose a bunch of synthetic viruses and other lifeforms on the planet - given our propensity to integrate and assimilate the little buggers into our own DNA? ...do we really want to create conditions that force viruses and other microbes to mutate and adapt? ...What will happen to us?

Brings a whole new meaning to the Gaia concept, doesn't it? ...Funny that Lovelock avoided this perspective. Wonder why.

Originally posted by liquidself
reply to post by Muckster

 

I respectfully disagree that it is a sensationalist topic. It appears to me to be a legitimate, even logical result in hindsight. there is only one genetic system on earth as far as we know. I think a more to point question would be how much our animal friends are also composed of viruses. I do not myself subscribe to the idea that humans are apart from nature per se or intrinsically evil (though there is much to recomend the latter) but the degree and amount to which we may have literally been formed BY viruses is disturbing. Say we had another million years in which to evolve - would we be then 80-90 percent virus?

[edit on 1-2-2010 by liquidself]

Having read your posts after your OP i have to agree and apologise.

My comments were not aimed at you directly, more aimed at those who would sensationalise a valid scientific statement into a... the matrix was right, humans are evil, we are so destructive type rhetoric.

I have found your comments following your OP to be fascinating... so again i apologise if it seems i jumped the gun a little. In hindsight my post did look critical of your OP which was not actually my intention...


thanks... star + flag

[edit on 1-2-2010 by Muckster]

95% Chimp, 50% Virus? Then either we are more than a whole, or Chimps are Virus as well... Or how about, scientists are way too stuck on the observer justifying the observed rather than Truth? Bah, such is life.


Mr. Wonka - "Invention, my dear friends, is 93 perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple."
Mrs. Teevee - "That's 105 percent!"

reply to post by Muckster


Yeah I think I understand. I just wanted to clarify that it was a real scientific finding really. No biggie. I have an eco-friend (lol is that a word?) who would probably like to wipe humanity off the earth. I am sympathetic to eco concerns but its an extreme view. I like the idea of an evolutionary interchange between viruses and humans, that way there s no way to put a true delimit on what exactly constitutes "human"> which is part of the reason I think it should concern ATSers.

At this point it seems these researches cannot truly say where (indeed even what) all of the involved viruses came from. See at this point we could even throw Francis Crick s panspermia theory in if we wanted to. Virues are much more able to survive extreme conditions (such as on an asteroid or comet say) that a regular ol bacteria IMHO. Its kind of a sleeper discovery with far reaching implications.

Still goes along with the "we were made of the dust of the earth" story that people have accepted for eons. No change, no difference.

reply to post by soficrow

Good questions re: what it means to evolution.

The next great war will start inside us. In the next stage of evolution, mankind is history.


liquidself
Here`s an article i found some time ago, maybe you`re interested.

The study -- led by Professor Keizo Tomonaga at Osaka University in Japan -- revealed that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication takes place in the nucleus of cells. It was the first to show sequences derived from a virus other than retroviruses. Researchers have known since 2001 that 8 percent of human genetic material is derived from retroviruses.

Interesting find, somehow I did figured that Human behaviour was increasingly becoming viral on which I created a thread Why Human Species Have Become A Virus *Graphic Images*. This further proves that it's not just behaviour but is coded into DNA of human species.

S&F.

This isn't exactly "breaking news". We're made of lots of stuff, for example most of our cells have bacteria inside them. Instead of bacteria we just call them mitochondria. More awesome is the fact thou that there are roughly 10 times more bacterial cells than mammal cells in our bodies at any given time. Oh and on the subject of us and virus, it's my strong (educated) opinion that what defines an eukaryote cell - the nucleus - is (well was..) in fact a viral envelope.

Viruses a faster way of maintaining the cohesiveness of the herd.

Genetic changes in bacteria can be transmitted across species and distance boundaries in a short period of time. Ones based on survival of the species and how it is mutating and developing.

Viri seem to play this role in multi-cellular organisms, but particularly in herd or communal type animals. Of which, we are one.

Originally posted by Muckster
Excuse my ignorance on this subject but isn’t it just stating the obvious??

Do we not share DNA with ALL life on earth? I heard somewhere that we have 95% the same DNA as pigs and 64% the same as Bananas! Doesn’t mean that we are Bananas.

I openly admit to not being particularly knowledgeable or educated on this subject, but to me this sounds like the sort of sensationalist stuff that gets picked up by the tabloid newspapers when they want to fill a gap!

Obviously it is also something that will be jumped on by the "all humans are evil" brigade, without actually thinking about it!

Sorry... just my uneducated opinion

I could not agree with you more. That means all of the great apes, and life on earth shares genetics with virus's. Hmmm..... so would carbon based off planet people too. Probably a cosmic similarity.

So its just another way of tring to make people get sick and depressed.

virus' seem to have the tendency to mutate quite often. change alot.

I wonder if our viral dna changes as often, and if so, could this be what causes evolution in lifeforms?

I've theorized for a while that we are really just big robots for viruses to drive around. They evolved to the point that they have us as a super-organism to pilot. We think we have consciousness, or awareness or free will, but really everything we do is also to benefit the viruses that compose us.

When you consider the implications of how viruses can affect our DNA, it makes sense that the transmission of a virus could drive mutation & evolution across a species. It seems like they have a very efficient system.

reply to post by Hithe Merinos



[liquidself
Here`s an article i found some time ago, maybe you`re interested.


The study -- led by Professor Keizo Tomonaga at Osaka University in Japan -- revealed that the genomes of humans and other mammals contain DNA derived from the insertion of bornaviruses, RNA viruses whose replication takes place in the nucleus of cells. It was the first to show sequences derived from a virus other than retroviruses. Researchers have known since 2001 that 8 percent of human genetic material is derived from retroviruses.


Interesting article thanks for that.
I was unaware of the viral "endogenization" until today. I think what the New Scientist article is saying that there s a lot more viral DNA than anyone expected - that s whats new. The section attempting to link the Bornavirus to Schizophrenia is truly fascinating - a virus that only infects neurons - Ima go to da doctor mon - scary. it completes the viral loop from biology to information/ memes completely. A person with a neuronal virus could create an informational virus that people pick up. Its bizarre.