Week4
Prompt:
The meaning of life has often been explored most fruitfully at its margins: in viruses, molecular concoctions, or apparently-inert materials. Identify and explain the significance of a marginal form of life in its historical context, bearing in mind that its meaning and liveliness in the past may not match how we see it today.
Response: (259 words)
The search for the true meaning of life leads to uncharted territories. before the discovery of viruses, it was believed that life could only exist in cellular form. the TMV virus (Tobacco Mosaic Virus) is a marginal life in its historical context. in 1892 Dmitri lvanovsky discovered the TMV while researching the tobacco plant, followed by Martinus Beijerinck’s conclusion in 1898 that the substance was not a bacterium but something that replicated itself within living cells. Subsequently in 1898 Martinus Beijerinck concluded that this substance was not a bacterium but something that replicated itself in living cells called a virus.TMV became a hot topic in the scientific community at the time and it provided a good model for the structure of viruses. Wendell Stanley crystallised TMV and proved that it was made up of proteins which laid the foundation for the study of viruses.(Creager, A. N. H. & Rosenberg, C. E. 2004) The subsequent discovery that TMV contains RNA (Ribonucleic acid) also provided a good foundation for genetics.TMV viruses have played a critical role in human development, and TMV research has deepened scientists’ understanding of how the virus infects and replicates in the host. This has been instrumental in the development of vaccines and drugs such as HIV, influenza viruses and coronaviruses, all of which were based on earlier research on TMV. In summary, the study of the marginal form of life has expanded our understanding of the complexity of life, and has contributed to the development of many fields of medicine and biotechnology. These research results have made great contributions to human society.
Reference:
Creager, A. N. H. & Rosenberg, C. E. (2004) The life of a virus: tobacco mosaic virus as an experimental model, 1930-1965. Journal of interdisciplinary history XXXIV (3) p.485–486.
