Another sensational news. New antiviral drug capable of destroying every possible virus in a living organism. Even AIDS, Ebola, Rabies, and other...

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/08/new-drug-could-1.php

is it real news? Its pretty cool if it is. I am just a tiny bit skeptical about information coming from a subdivision of a science fiction channel.

oh great!! humans outsmarting mother nature to live longer and drain more shrinking global resources. those poor drowning polar bears.
kidding!!! sort of 

this might be the reason why women couldnt have children in that sci fi movie "Children of Men"

Quote from: VB inc on August 12, 2011, 17:20

this might be the reason why women couldnt have children in that sci fi movie "Children of Men"

"The Omega Man" or "I am Legend" Same movie, different age.

Viruses have their role in evolution. They are basically fragments of DNA (or RNA) surrounded by protein shell, and they act like they are not alive when they are not in the cell. But when they touch the living cell, their protein shell makes sort of a molecular link to the cell membrane, and it brakes apart allowing the DNA or RNA of a virus to enter the cell.
Than, this foreign DNA or RNA acts like any other DNA or RNA in the cell, multiplying itself using cell mechanisms. Viral DNA and RNA also carries information about the protein shell that has to be made in order to protect future viral DNA or RNA when the cell dies and releases thousands or millions of new viruses.
Some of the viruses enter the cell nucleus, and implement them selves in the DNA of a host, which means they become a part of our DNA. Then, they are able to stay there for months or years, until something wakes them up, and they start to multiply. This is how HIV virus works. It stays quiet in the heart of the cells, waiting for something to wake him up, and then it starts it's multiplication causing AIDS symptoms.
Viruses are basically small groups of genes, and they act like that. That's why, sometimes, viruses that implement themselves into bacterial DNA are able to make those bacteria different than the rest, uninfected ones. Some strains of bacteria were born this way, and they looked different, and acted different than the original bacteria that weren't infected. Theoretically, the same can happen to higher organisms, like we are. Many of us carry herpes virus, and maybe, once it will cause some mutation causing some new attribute in an infected person.
But in most cases viruses are harmful, and organism tends to destroy them.
I am not sure, but I think this new medicine is able to stick to the cell membrane of infected cells, causing cell destruction. That's because infected cells always have certain proteins on their membranes that mar them as infected cells. The problem, until now, was the fact that these markers on the membrane look different related to different viruses that are in the cell. I am not sure how they managed to make a substance able to recognize these markers in such a universal way....
I also see one thing as a problem. Imagine if you have a flu, and your lungs are seriously infected, and you take a medicine like this. It would destroy all infected cells in your lungs, and you will probably suffocate. Will the proper dosage solve a problem like this? I hope they know better than we do

I guess you would like such a drug if you had a child with cancer! I see your point however, we are weakening our genetic pool because people don't die from so many causes that would be devastating in the past, and these would be in theory people with the weakest genes. We don't live under the laws of natural selection anymore, at least many of us don't (street dwellers do, as only the strongest ones survive sleeping in the streets malnourished), but this can also be seen as part of our evolution.