Line up all the viruses on Earth end to end (go ahead, I’ll wait), and they’ll stretch over 10 million light years. In my new podcast, I talk to Curtis Suttle of the University of British Columbia about what it means to live on a virus-dominated planet.
I’ve been using that Suttle quote ( “The estimated 10^30 viruses in the ocean, if stretched end to end, would span farther than the nearest 60 galaxies.”) in my classes for the past 3 years, and each new year I’ve recalculated because I can’t believe there isn’t a missed decimal point or two. And each year I discover that incredible though it is, it’s still correct, as far as I can tell.
I’ll probably end up recalculating it again next year, though.
Line up all the viruses on Earth end to end (go ahead, I’ll wait), and they’ll stretch over 10 million light years. In my new podcast, I talk to Curtis Suttle of the University of British Columbia about what it means to live on a virus-dominated planet.
I’ve been using that Suttle quote ( “The estimated 10^30 viruses in the ocean, if stretched end to end, would span farther than the nearest 60 galaxies.”) in my classes for the past 3 years, and each new year I’ve recalculated because I can’t believe there isn’t a missed decimal point or two. And each year I discover that incredible though it is, it’s still correct, as far as I can tell.
I’ll probably end up recalculating it again next year, though.