How Viruses Steal Your Cells
Meet the influenza A virus--
but keep your cells away
Viruses exist to nab your cells and use them for their own reproductive purposes. They have to, because a virus is nothing more than a few strands of rogue DNA (or rogue RNA, DNA's single-stranded cousin) wrapped in a protein coat to keep out the draft.
They are not cells, and they have none of the internal structures that cells use to go about the business of life, which is, generally, to make more life. No, viruses are just genetic material looking for a free ride--looking to hijack a host cell and make its machinery do the virus's bidding.
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