For the first time, scientists have used artificial intelligence to create new kinds of viruses, raising hopes for medical advances while also raising the disturbing possibility that the technology could someday be used to invent dangerous pathogens.

Synthesizing viruses from scratch is hardly new. Researchers long ago learned how to manufacture viral genomes; they are used to investigate antiviral drugs and vaccines, as well as to learn how viruses work.

Continue reading “This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature” →

Perhaps no disease has inspired more terror than smallpox. Edward Jenner, who invented the smallpox vaccine in 1796, called it “the most dreadful scourge of the human species.” In the 20th century alone, smallpox is estimated to have killed 300 million people. The eradication of the virus in the 1970s stands as one of the great triumphs of medicine. And yet, five decades later, smallpox still haunts us, as the world worries about its resurrection as a biological weapon.

Continue reading ““This Is Very Strange”: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly” →

For over a decade, something strange has been happening in a lake straddling the border of Vermont and Quebec.

Lake Memphremagog is home to brown bullhead catfish, and in 2012, anglers began noticing that some of them were covered in velvety black growths. Wildlife biologists eventually determined that the fish had skin cancer.

So-called melanomas are exceedingly rare in catfish, but more than a third of the bullheads carried them. Now, researchers think they know why: A contagious form of cancer is spreading through the lake, they reported on Wednesday.

Continue reading “Deep in This Lake, a Contagious Cancer Is Spreading” →