One of the main reasons I have chosen to get a degree in biology is to learn more about viruses and hopefully get a job in the future working with them. Because of this interest, I’ve chosen to do my blog post on an article about giant viruses; more specifically the mimivirus. I found an article on Nature ’s website called Mimivirus: Leading the Way in the Discovery of Giant Viruses fo Amoeba. In most biology classes I’ve taken so far, there is always a moment during the semester when viruses are brought up and the professor either claims, “they’re not a living thing and are just a piece of nucleic acid wrapped in protein”, or “they are a living thing, and can be pretty complex”. To me, this article shows that viruses are not only living, but can also be very complex and unique compared to everything else. In 1980’s and 90’s, two scientists named Rowbotham and Birtles, were investigating outbreaks of Legionnaires disease. They were doing this by gathering amoeba...