Reclassifying Viruses as Living?

[Karl Magnacca]

On 15 Mar 2006 at 19:26, Ken Kinman wrote:
> After reading the Discover article, I have mixed feelings
> about it.
> [...]
> However, suggestions that Mimiviridae are a fourth Domain of
> life are absurd.

Just as a side note, it's interesting how Discover has changed over the
past few years.  Although it was promised that there would be no changes
when Disney took it over, there has been a clear shift from covering new
but more or less validated and accepted discoveries, to stories on very
preliminary data that gets stretched into wildly speculative theories,
often by people who are generally considered to be borderline crackpot.
I still read it and usually find it interesting, but it's definitely
made the shift from Science to Popular Science.

Karl
=====================
Karl Magnacca, USGS-BRD, 808-985-6076
PO Box 11, Hawaii Natl. Park, HI 96718
"When you're looking for something that doesn't exist,
it makes you crazier the closer you get to it." -R. Ebert