Infected bacteria (green) and uninfected bacteria (blue) spread throughout phytoplankton in the ocea

Infected bacteria (green) and uninfected bacteria (blue) spread throughout phytoplankton in the ocean. The viruses force the infected bacteria through a biological method of reproduction called lysis. The virus attaches itself to the nucleus of the bacteria, uses the bacteria’s machinery to copy itself, and then activates a sort of chemical self-immolation… causing the bacteria to burst, ripped apart by its own malfunctioning body as the viruses escape its disintegrating corpse to infect other bacteria. However, the moment a virus enters its body, a bacterium releases stress hormones which cause it to separate from its colony and attack the plankton around it. This both spares its colony from further infection and attacks foreign bodies. But in the process of sacrificing itself for the sake of the colony, its carbon is released onto the nitrogen excreted from the plankton. As a result, basic carbon and nitrogen assimilate, helping further the nitrogen and carbon cycles in the world. Every breath you take and every time we use carbon through energy or food, we harness resources from a cycle that includes mass suicide for the sake of the greater good.  These large planet-like conglomerates are actually the HuH-7 cells, immortal cells taken from the liver tumor of a 57-year-old Japanese male in 1982. The cells are used around the world for medical research since their original source is immortal. Every single neon green dot on the giant sage structures are viral copies spreading throughout the purposely infected cells to study the effects. A photograph of bacteria in Lake Matoaka infested internally with a multiplying virus. The black hexagons you see are actually viruses. The virus entered the bacteria, which would not normally be susceptible to this type of bacteria, but was irradiated by uranyl acetate and thus suffered from a weak external structure to protect it. You are watching the bacteria go through lysis, it is literally exploding as it commits suicide to protect the colony from infection. It’s simply what must be done for the greater good of the colony.  You are looking at small bacteriophage drill their ways into a cell’s membrane. Their name comes from “bacteria” and the Greek phagein “to devour.” 3.6 billion years ago, the first chemicals created complex molecules that actively reproduced themselves. This was the first step from chemicals to actual life, but it was still a rather slow transition. Some of the first lifeforms were basic cells and basic viruses. Viruses are parasites. They cannot live outside a host and can only reproduce themselves with the machinery of other life. Imagine as if each cell was a factory; the virus will use their machinery to produce themselves instead of reproducing another cell through division. But the earlier viruses were even more magnificent. They used the lysogenic cycle rather than lytic cycle, which means that rather than cause the bacteria to burst by using its basic membrane to copy itself… it uses a much more baffling process. The virus will enter a bacterium and use its own DNA to copy itself, because the virus lacks the complex DNA to even sustain an identity. Not only does it use the machinery, but the blueprint. The cell will divide as it normally would, but every single descendant will be infected by a copy of the dormant virus. In bacteria, this way of multiplication is even more amazing. The viruses force the bacteria to become more docile and safe in their colony, migrating into the center or “citadel” of their colony rather than its edges to ensure a greater survival rate for the infected bacteria. This means eventually, the only bacteria that survived through the hellish microbiological landscape are the infected descendants. In a few hours of infection, the entire colony is infected and not a single bacterium knows it. Bacteria are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of  the colony. We have observed, over the decades, social hierarchies and chemical responses to stimuli akin to emotional triggers in bacterial colonies. The wars you fight, the passions you carry, and the nobility some hold in all this “consciousness” perhaps is just an accidental product of the progress of life. This is not a haunting meaninglessness. It is a liberating truth.  -- source link
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