Hey Germdoc! Invasion!

[crokett]

It is a book I just finished reading. The plot is that 3 billion years ago aliens injected a virus into whatever primitive organisms were on earth at the time. Ever hundred millenia or so the aliens activate the virus. It turns whatever its host is into an alien. If the aliens don't think the current dominant species has the right stuff, they throw another switch which kills off the hosts, hence the dinosaur mass extinction. Anyhoo, it gets activated in humans. It gets beaten when some viral experts realize it can't survive in high oxygen, so they induce it to come out of cells of infected people by giving them the common cold. Is this realistic at all? Or is it pseudo-science? The inducing the virus part, not the aliens part.

[LCHIEN]

It is a book I just finished reading. The plot is that 3 billion years ago aliens injected a virus into whatever primitive organisms were on earth at the time. Ever hundred millenia or so the aliens activate the virus. It turns whatever its host is into an alien. If the aliens don't think the current dominant species has the right stuff, they throw another switch which kills off the hosts, hence the dinosaur mass extinction. Anyhoo, it gets activated in humans. It gets beaten when some viral experts realize it can't survive in high oxygen, so they induce it to come out of cells of infected people by giving them the common cold. Is this realistic at all? Or is it pseudo-science? The inducing the virus part, not the aliens part.

I think if you look at the back flap of the book cover you'll read that it's Fiction.

[germdoc]

We are unfortunately dealing with real germs that behave in a somewhat similar fashion, thanks to our bad habits, overreliance on antibiotics and technology, and general hubris.

I don't read fiction like that, real life is much more interesting. Along those lines: the boox Influenza is really good about the 1918 epidemic, Mosquitoes is good, as is Pox (about syphilis). I have The Hot Zone and The Coming Epidemic but never read them. They're a little too sensationalistic.

[Alex Franke]

I think if you look at the back flap of the book cover you'll read that it's Fiction.

What!?? That's not real??? Hmpf. I guess I better stop asking people to sneeze on me to keep my alien virus at bay.

crokett, how did that author explain the common cold / high oxygen connection? Or am I missing the point?

[crokett]

Alex, the idea was the cold virus induced the alien virus to come out of the cells and therefore be exposed to oxygen, which was toxic to it. I know oxygen is toxic (even to people) in high enough concentrations and I know that a loooong time ago there wasn't as much oxygen in atmosphere as there is now. So that part at least he got right. What I was wondering was the reaction between the viruses. I know the book is fiction, but hopefully it has at least some basis in science (alien viruses notwithstanding )

Of course this also requires some suspension of believe that a culture advanced enough to send an advanced virus through space would overlook an obvious way to kill it.

[Alex Franke]

Alex, the idea was the cold virus induced the alien virus to come out of the cells and therefore be exposed to oxygen, which was toxic to it.

Oooh -- I see... SF writers can really come up with some clever scenarios, can't they?

He's obviously not a SF writer, but Michener used to include a page or so about the historical context of his fiction -- along the lines of "This part is historically accurate; this part is not." Seems like that kind of info would be nice with medical fiction or sf, too. Although it might take too much of the fantasy out of it...

[ironhat]

That book sounds like a follow-up by L. Ron Hubbard.