

Mammals Made By Viruses - tokenadult
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2012/02/14/mammals-made-by-viruses/

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ngvrnd
Utterly fascinating. But the last paragraph in the article puts the lie to the
title -- pigs and horses don't have this feature. Last I checked, both
mammals.

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nhaehnle
_But the last paragraph in the article puts the lie to the title -- pigs and
horses don't have this feature. Last I checked, both mammals._

There is no indefinite plural article in English. The title is perfectly
consistent with the content of the article, if potentially a bit misleading.

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yummies
i think he means to say the last paragraph contradicts the first:

"If not for a virus, none of us would ever be born."

if horses and pigs are a-ok without it, then the assertion that in its absence
we would have no chance of existence seems a bit odd

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stretchwithme
There's a reason our immune system doesn't simply keep all viruses out of the
body. Any organism that did so would have offspring without as much random
variation. That would greatly decrease the chances of surviving random threats
including new viruses.

So when going back in time, don't change anything. And should science ever
make it possible to design offspring, don't make it impervious to viruses.

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username3
Or viruses are made by mammals?

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ufo
No. (But you can strech definitions a bit if you want to. Biology is weird)

