What is a virus? How do viruses work?

 Walter Reed discovered the first human virus in 1901 but what is a virus viruses are everywhere from our surroundings to the very food we eat we ingest inhale and take in millions of viruses every second pretty much all life on Earth has some kind of virus designed specifically to infect it including bacteria and even other viruses viruses are tiny very tiny you cannot visibly see them in fact they are so small that if bacteria had eyes even they wouldn't be able to see all of them most scientists accept that viruses are not living but a complex collection of organic matter that is able to self-replicate they mostly consist of a shell made of protein which inside contains either DNA or RNA with enzymes for replication and manipulation of their genetic materials are you still with me good.

 let's look more closely a virus i actually just a piece or strand of genetic information usually DNA or RNA which can be single or double stranded this is the viruses genome it uses this with the help of various molecular machines to replicate itself however it cannot do this alone it must infect some kind of cell cells are the smallest unit of life they manufacture proteins replicate DNA and store resources this makes them perfect hosts for viruses armed with its genetic material viruses are able to infect healthy cells and convert them into mindless virus producing robots the virus uses this outer protein coat covered in small molecular receptors to bind and join to the membrane of a cell this is essential as it is what determines which cells a virus is able to infect once joined the virus uses several complicated biological pathways in order to force the cell to either accept its genetic material or take in the entire virus itself once in the cell the virus will then begin to use its molecular Arsenal to hijack the cell's protein manufacturing systems and DNA replication mechanism after the virus has integrated itself into the cells own DNA the cell will then replicate its DNA and use it to manufacture proteins without the cell even knowing it produces viral protein shells filling them with virus DNA effectively making copies of the virus and assembling them the virus making machine begins to take over more and more of the cells protein manufacturing ribosomes churning out thousands of new viruses which quickly fill the cell these viruses then cause tension within the cell and by several different means bursts from the cell with the intention of infecting.

 new hosts for the same purpose seems like relentless biological vandalism to me viruses are not all bad though some are being used to help strengthen disease resistance in crops whilst others such as HIV are being used in curing certain types of cancers but what is the most remarkable of all is that many scientists believe some viruses that infected bacteria billions of years ago helped form the first cell nucleus if this is true then all complex cellular life on Earth descended from a single virus and his rubbish attempt at trying to infect a bacterium now that is remarkable you.