Thursday, July 26, 2012

The Hot Zone: Part 2 Post

Part 2 was filled with tons of excitement! I can't believe that this virus is only deadly to monkeys and not to  humans as well.  As a result, however, I find it very curious that these monkeys have enlarged spleens that turned into clots of blood and have small amounts of blood in their intestines. Poor monkeys :(. 

Something new that I have learned is one way to identify a virus. You can make the virus grow inside living cells in a flask of  water. A sample of the virus is dropped into the flask and it then spreads through the cells. If it likes the cells it will then multiply (yikes!). "One or two viruses can become a billion viruses in a few days - a China of viruses in a bottle the size of one's thumb." I find this to be horrible yet fascinating!

Still waiting to find out the original host of the virus!!!..........

4 comments:

  1. I agree that the discovery of the virus only being deadly to monkeys was shocking and a little weird. It was a little disturbing to read about in such detail but it was also pretty cool.
    Learning how to identify a virus certainly was really interesting and definitely caught my attention.

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  2. Oh, i'd totally forgotten that we don't know the original host, but come to think of it, I'd really like to know too. I totally agree that it is horrifying and interesting. I feel bad for those monkeys; hopefully they weren't in too much pain. If they were, it was probably more humane for the scientists to euthanize them anyway.

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  3. I agree about the monkeys! that was sad for them. I am also curious to find out the original host though!

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  4. I agree this book is horrifying but yet it is still so interesting to read! I want to know the original host too! I hope they tell us by the end of the book.

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