Viruses

Researchers in Tokyo discovered a strain of herpes contained in a "jumping gene" found in fish and humans—the implications are still unknown.

• By Dan Samorodnitsky

The Zika virus outbreak in the Americas hits on the things that risk-perception researchers know worry people most. Will that be enough to overcome people's fears about genetically modified mosquitoes?

• By Francie Diep

Viruses are pretty damn good at evading our immune systems, so researchers co-opted their design.

• By John Upton

Is culture just a side effect of the struggle to avoid disease?

• By Ethan Watters