October 14, 2014 • 32 mins
Viruses are big jerks that invade regular cells and hold them hostage, making you sick while they're doing it. Learn everything you ever needed to know about viruses, including how the common cold works.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff
Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, There's Jerry uh
And this is Stuff you Should Know, featuring my enormous
(00:20):
dot up nose and how appropriate. Yeah, well that was
one of the reasons why I wanted to do this.
I figured I'm a little sick right now. Yeah, yeah, still,
and uh, I wanted to know more about the monster inside.
That's right, Like, I'm not feeling great and the knowledge
is power, like we always say, exactly, Like, just from
researching this, I was like starting to break a sweat
(00:42):
and tremble and I was like, I'm getting better, and
then I passed out and hit my head. Yeah, and
I didn't have enough time to finish studying. So good,
I'm gonna have to make a lot of this up,
Chuck cool. Yeah, we've covered we covered ebola recently, and
we are definitely going to cover HIV at some point.
We just haven't gotten around to it. Yeah, but both
of those are viruses. So there's another one we talked
(01:03):
about that seemed to come up in this. I don't
remember what it was. But um, the herpies. No, no,
we know they've talked about herpes. Um, well, you know,
not mixed company. What what was it? I don't remember,
but there was definitely microbiome maybe yeah, no, I don't
remember what it was. But we've talked about viruses and
viral infections. But to me, I think viruses are one
(01:25):
of the most fascinating things on the entire planet. They're jerks, like,
we don't know where they came from. We don't quite
know how to classify them because they really kind of
operate on the line between a living in a non
living thing. Yeah, this article said, like most scientists agree,
but I found a lot of people that said that
(01:46):
they're not living things too, So yeah, um, but who
cares really, They still definitely have an effect. You know.
The weird thing is about virus is why some people
say it's living in some people say it's not living.
Is that it to to be a living thing, you
have to have something like arms. Yeah, you have to
(02:08):
have arms. Rocks rocks don't have arms, Nope, point proven, Um,
you have to have you have to be able to
carry out the processes that keep you alive. Yeah, like
you a cell a cell is the smallest living organism.
It's the smallest possible living organism because you get lower
(02:30):
than that and you have maybe the things that make
up a cell, but they can't sustain themselves. A cell
can sustain itself, and things can be made up of
cells like us, and therefore we are a living organism.
The cells that make us up are living organisms. Plants
are living organisms. But viruses they don't have any means
of carrying out the processes that keep them alive, which
(02:53):
doesn't matter because they're not alive, But more important, they
don't have any processes that allow them to reproduce. Yeah,
they're like by themselves that they're not worth very much.
They need to glom on. They're always gloming on to
everyone else's junk exactly, which is basically what a virus does.
But for something as simple as the viruses, and we'll
talk about how simple they are in a second, they
(03:16):
have devastating effects when they do start to really get busy,
you know. So Chuck I was saying, like, they don't
know exactly where viruses came from. They know they're very old.
But there there are a couple of theories. My favorite
one probably the one that's right is um that they
were former bits of cells that basically evolved into freelance renegades. Yeah,
(03:43):
which explains why certain viruses fit with certain cells. Well,
that makes sense. So they could have just been basically
like drifting genetic material that that evolved enough to say
I'm gonna learn to reproduce by hijacking renegade drifters. Yep,
So are you saying that viruses or John Rambo? Pretty much?
(04:06):
So let's talk about like what makes a virus? Uh? Yeah, Well,
like you said, a cell is is on its own
It can do its own thing. Viruses cannot. Viruses are
super tiny, about one millionth of an inch long, which
is a thousand times smaller than bacteria, which are smaller
than human cells. Most of them. There are some viruses
(04:26):
that are actually larger than the average sized bacteria, but
for the most part they are smaller, which is still
super tiny. It is like you need an electron microscope
to view these bad boys, right. Uh. And they can
infect just about any living thing. As a matter of fact,
any living thing could be theoretically infected by a virus
like a bacteria can get a viral infection. Man, that's crazy,
(04:48):
isn't that I don't se can get viruses, yeah, donkeys, Yeah,
all sorts of stuff, the whole the whole gamut from
seaweed to donkeys, the virus itself. If you just want
to look at what that that little tiny particle is is, Uh,
it's a veryon Is that how we're going to say
(05:10):
that viron viron? Yeah? Why didn't they just leave the
second eye environed? Yeah? I don't. Basically, what it is
is a set of genetic instructions. Can be either DNA
or RNA, can't be both. Uh, And it's you know,
it's just instructions, that's all it is. Well, that's that's
the nucleic acid that is part of a VIRON. Like
(05:32):
a VIRON is like a particle, it's like an individual
viral particle. Yeah, And part of that is the nucleic acid. Yeah.
And that's surrounded by capsid, which is just a protein
coating to protect it. And then sometimes if it's an
envelope virus, that will also have an envelope around that capsid.
If it's naked it doesn't need or because it just
(05:53):
doesn't have that other protein code, right, And the enveloped
ones are enveloped with this um a lipid fat of
some sort. Um. But for a naked virus, it's can.
It's made up of two things. It's got it's it's
nucleic acid and it's protein coding that protects the nucleic acid.
So it's not just nucleic acid floating around, that's right.
(06:16):
And um, the nucleic acid is like you said, it's
basically just a blueprint for how to make more viruses.
Because if speaking teleologically, a virus is its whole purpose
is to make more viruses. That's all it cares about.
And you can say, well, that applies to just about
any living organism if you get down to the bare bones. Yeah,
(06:41):
with the virus, it's like that's it, man, it's not
doing anything else. It doesn't care about playing cards. It
doesn't want to do anything but reproduce. It make you sick, Yeah,
pretty much. Uh. Their their shape varies a lot, but
there are basically three types, helical or hell equal. It's
like tube. You got your polyhedral, so it's sort of
(07:02):
like a soccer ball, and then you have your complex
shapes and they are complex there. You know, they can
look crazy, they can have tails, they can have crazy
looking spider legs like the what they have both which
one looks like the Apollo lunar Lander. I'm gonna go
with complex for sure, but yeah, yeah, I don't think
(07:23):
it could be polyhedral. It's startling how much it looks
like that. Yeah, it looks like it was made to
look like a cool little lunar Lander, or that the
lunar Lander was modeled after the virus, which didn't make
much because they wanted to infect the Moon. Two. You
may have astronaut jokes. Uh so, unlike cells that can
(07:45):
do their own thing, viruses don't have enzymes like cells
do that basically allowed to operate, uh, independently as their
own little units. Some do. Some viruses contain just enough
enzymes to take their DNA or their RNA and and
do something with it to basically primate to be transcribed
or something like that. Or they have enzymes that go
(08:08):
hijack the enzymes in the cell. So some do. Most
don't write. But um yeah, that's that's the whole point
of infecting a host cell. If all the virus wants
to do is reproduce, but it can't reproduce, that's where
the host cell comes in. That's right, They basically move
into the factory with and say we're going to use
(08:29):
your equipment. They're like, there's gonna be some big changes
around here because there's a new sheriff in town. And
the virus although all rirus just don't kill people, we
should point that out. No, And so it depending on
what kind of virus it is, whether it's naked or enveloped. UM,
(08:50):
it will attach itself to the to the host cell
and either inject it. If it's naked, it has to
stay outside the host cell and basically in x it's
um genetic material into the host cell. Or if it's enveloped,
that fat lipid coding that that makes it an enveloped
(09:11):
virus basically connects to the host cell's own fat lipid
coding and that protein codd virus can basically slip through,
just absorb right into the cell and say tada when
it makes it on the inside. Yeah. Is that what
an antigen is? I think that's the protein that has
(09:31):
to match like the antigen looks for another like protein
so it can get that type bond and if they
and if they're not similar enough, they can't bond and
infect that cell. Be wrong. In that is that right?
I don't know if that's the it sounds right, and
the reason it sounds right because I saw elsewhere in
the research that, um, that's why viruses go after specific
(09:54):
kinds of cells there there. Um, that's they recognize the
type of cells that they're capable of infecting. Right, and say,
I can bind to you very tightly, my friend. Exactly,
So let's dance exactly all right, right after this message,
we are going to get down to the nitty gritty
on what happens once they have bound themselves to that cell.
(10:22):
All right, Josh, they moved into the cell. They like
the looks of it. It's a nice open concept floor plan,
which everyone loves these days. What happens from there, well,
it depends on the virus. So let's say it was
one that injected it. It's got its genetic material floating around.
Maybe there's an enzyme that's assisting the genetic material, or
if the virus itself showed up, um, it's releasing its
(10:46):
genetic material all over the place. But basically what happened
that sounds pretty cross. Well, it is pretty gross. It
happens exactly like it like you think, yeah, um, but
the Once inside the cell, you'll see a lot that
the virus hijacks the cells um processes. Yeah, like hey,
(11:07):
we need to use your deal because we don't have
our own exactly. Um, they're not. The reason people use
the word hijack is because it really gets the point across,
but it's also because science isn't on how viruses do it,
and they they What they think basically is that if
there's an accompanying enzyme or something, the enzymes basically wait
(11:31):
for a line of other enzymes the cell zone enzymes
to go past, and then it grabs the last one
in the line that old trick, hits it over the head,
hypnotizes it basically, and then sends it back out to
go recruit other enzymes, and then all of a sudden,
the cell is it's enzymes, it's workers. If you think
(11:52):
of the enzymes is like the workers in the cell um.
They're all working for this virus, and the cells like
what the hecks going on? It's too late. The enzymes
are focused on transcribing the DNA, which ultimately just makes
more DNA or RNA for the virus, and then assembling
it with proteins that the enzymes are now making, so
(12:14):
they're now making more and more and more viruses. It's
a hostile takeover. It is very much a hostile takeover.
That's one way to go. There's another thing called a retrovirus,
which I'm a huge fan of. Some of the worst
viruses around a retroviruses, which is ironic because they actually
have the um softest impact on the host cell. But
a retrovirus goes in very quietly, hangs around and yeah,
(12:40):
because HIV is a retrovirus, UM, so is uh. I
think a flu flues a retrovirus too, I think um.
But it goes in and it it just inserts its
DNA into the cells DNA. So it's like, yeah, go
about your business or whatever. But now there's this extra
sequence that when you go over it and you transcribe
(13:02):
it and you do what this this um DNA or
this genetic material is telling you to do to make
you're gonna also, as a byproduct, spit out um viruses.
So it's just duplicating itself, it is. So that's there's
a lot of different things that can go on. But
it's like you said, there's a hostile takeover, or the
cell is tricked into making more viruses. But what happens
(13:26):
is more and more and more and more viruses are
being made within the host cell, which can be pretty
bad for the hostel. Ultimately, well yeah, because eventually the
virus is gonna leave, and they can either if it's
a naked virus, it'll bust out and just destroy the
host cell and be like, hey, I'm tired of your
little apartment. I'm just gonna burn it down because I'm
(13:48):
my own thing now and I can live on my
own um. Or if it's an envelope virus, and it'll
just kind of pinch away and keep that protective cell
membrane and just be like, well fine, I'll just take
my stuff and then leave and you're free to do
what you want. Right. Well, that's another reason why retroviruses
are easy on the host cell is because all retroviruses
(14:09):
are enveloped viruses. So these new newly made viruses just
moved to the outside membrane and bud off. And then
what happens when they bud off or when the cell
breaks open because there's so many new viruses, it ruptures
the cell. It's just pretty horrific if you think about it.
(14:29):
UM all of a sudden, you're contagious. Yeah, and it's
duplicating and spreading all throughout your body at a pretty
rapid rate. Lots of these guys. So let's let's look
at your well, let's look at you. For instance, what
have you got right now? I got something some sort
of viral infection, not the flu, probably, Yeah, you achy, fevery, no, no, feverish?
(14:57):
I mean, uh so what do you What do I have? Doc? Well,
I would say you have a cold, But I had
a cold that that turned into a sinus infection. I
may have one of those. From the color of the
stuff that's coming out of my nose, I would say
I probably have a sizes infection. Yes. Would you describe
it as a khaki? Uh? I would describe it as
a drab all of oh Man, way worse than khaki.
(15:21):
When I was sick a couple of weeks ago, I
had some serious, bright, bright, almost fluorescent yellow coming out,
which is all very gratifying to get rid of, either
with your netty potter just blowing your nose or whatever.
I've been potting like a madman. Yeah, you know, you
can overdo that when you're sick. Apparently, Yeah, I can
imagine because this just the salt. Too much salt up there,
(15:45):
and I think just fluid, like unless you really really
get it all out. Uh, it's better like you need
to dry out completely in between. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
definitely all right. We'll just take two of these and
come back and see me next week. Well you're a
ignosing what was going on? Well, you've got a cold,
I think, um, but let's say you're in the office.
(16:06):
I think we should make this as real as possible.
I was. Let's say that I'm hanging out with my
sweet little four year old niece, who herself has a cold.
She the she the person. I don't want to name names,
but I think she's that. She's on your list now.
So alright, So your little niece probably sneezed or something,
(16:27):
or just put her dirty little hands all over your
face because she loves Uncle Josh. She she has her
dad would not allow her to have dirty hands. Okay,
I think she's probably confident around me. Uh. And what
you probably did was inhaled a virus particle, and that
probably attached to your the linings of your nasal passages,
your sinuses, because apparently there's basically only three ways that
(16:49):
a virus gets into your body. You inhale it uh,
attaches to your mucous membranes like your nose or your
gums or something, or enters through a break in skin.
That's right, So your host cell is gonna break open,
your virus is gonna move in there with and say
I'm gonna use your equipment like we talked about. Then
maybe travel to your bloodstream, travel to your lungs uh,
(17:13):
and you're gonna end up getting let's say maybe one
of the first signs as a running nose because you're
losing cells in your sinuses and now that fluid is
gonna be loosened up as a result. Yeah, the nasal,
the literal cellular lining of my sinuses is being is
rupturing it under attack. Because here's the thing. When you
go through and look at like what a virus does,
(17:34):
you're looking at what one individual virian is doing. You
don't necessarily just pick up one individual viran. You can
be exposed to many, many, many virians and they are
each reproducing producing thousands more just in one cell. So
all this is going on, it can have a pronounced effect,
(17:54):
like if you just lost one cell your in your
nasal lining. It's not gonna do much. You're probably never
ever going to notice. But if you lose a ton
of the cells at the same time, you're gonna have
a runny nose. Yeah, or if it happens in your throat,
you're gonna have a sore throat. That's right. That's just fluid.
You know, it's attacking those cells in your throat and
(18:15):
the lining, and it's dripping and just causing like a
usually some sort of inflammation. Yeah. And those because those
ruptured cells are being carried down by your nose juice
to the back of your throat, which is turn That's
what I was raised on. It's in turn um those juice, okay,
which in turn u and they attach an attack to
(18:39):
the cells lining your throat, and then this whole thing
is just going on and on and on again. Yeah.
If you've ever had aches and pains because of maybe
a flu, that's because your muscle cells are being attacked.
And it sucks because you don't know that this is
going on at first, Like it's just this war being
wags inside your body and you're like, you know, hey,
(19:01):
I'm just going to the grocery store and I'm feeling
pretty good, and by the time you start to feel
it's too late, it is too late. I'm glad you
brought that up because I did a don't be dumb
on when you're actually contagious. Yeah, what's the final on that?
So it depends on it, does it vary? The how
long you're contagious varies, But when you start is a
(19:22):
about a day before you start showing symptoms. So like,
remember how I said, if you have one cell burst
and and you're not gonna notice it, it's gonna take
many many cells to burst before you finally have a
sore throat. Well, while those things are bursting, after that
first one bursts, you're contagious, buddy. So for a day
before you even know you're sick, you're walking around infecting
(19:46):
other people. With a cold, you go from the day
before symptoms to about four days after. And with the flu,
you go from the day before symptoms to five to
seven days after. So you can still be it. It
is true and people are like, I'm not contagious anymore.
They're usually probably totally wrong, But say they're flu last
(20:06):
eight days. If they say that on day eight, they're
they're actually right. Most people say it by like day
three or four or whatever that it's all right, Well
they need to watch Don't be dumb. Josh's award winning
web series so many awards, man, I think the next
award is gonna win. Is the most divisive web series
because half the people, more than half, I think, are like, man,
(20:28):
this is the best thing ever. People are like, oh,
good at why is Josh Acton so weird? And I'll
just respond with, yeah, you don't get it, and I
mean it's definitely not for everybody. I've learned. Well, it's
very funny, I think, Uh sure, So all right, and
we mentioned fever. We're going to talk about what that
is actually doing inside your body right for this break.
(20:51):
So it took. It turns out you asked me if
I if I feel feverish, and I don't. Apparently my
body is slacking on the immune response. Well, I think
you don't always get the fever. But fever is a
good thing because your body is wired to operate optimally
at ninety eight point six. Even though I heard that
was nine eight point seven, now is that right? Yeah,
(21:12):
I heard that. The they kind of abandoned that as
like an average body temperature because it varies enough between
human beings that they're they're like, now it's this between
this rather than point six. And if you don't have that,
you're sick to somewhere in that range, let's say, uh,
chemical reactions and basically anything going on your body just
that's the temperature it likes. So when you get a fever,
(21:34):
it's actually slowing all those processes down, including the virus
is spread, because it's like, oh man, it's hot, I
can't can't work as much, that's right, Uh, which is
kind of a weird, indirect, roundabout way of slowing a
fever down or slowing an infection down. Yeah, I mean,
I guess if it works. So it's good to have
(21:55):
a fever. It is good to have a fever, and
it's it actually makes sense in strange way because some infections,
some viruses attack the very cells that are meant to
mount the immune response. Like remember a bola it goes
right after like every immune response cell it can find.
HIV goes after T cells, which attack and destroy foreign bodies,
(22:18):
so to to slow them down and to slow the
spread so that the immune response can continue and mount
a full attack is kind of clever. Yeah, And and
since you mentioned HIV, it's it's another scary one because
it's one of those viruses that can just lay in
wait and they even call it sleeping it some sometimes,
(22:41):
you know, like it's not obvious you could have HIV
and be spreading HIV without ever feeling any kind of
sick or any kind of symptoms, and um, basically eventually
that virus is gonna do its thing. You know, it
could lay in wait for years even without without acting right.
And then it depends on the virus. But they figure
(23:03):
that there's some sort of environmental trigger. One I saw
was like exposure to UV blight or something like that.
But it's the same thing herpies as a virus like
that it sleeps, which is why people who have like
say herpie simplex don't always have um cold source. It'll
(23:23):
just flare up, right, it will flare up. And they
often say, like in times of stress or something like that, Well,
the virus isn't like this person is stressed out, let's go.
There's probably cortisol triggers the virus to start reproducing. But
one of the one of the devious aspects of this
is when that when that virus sneaks in and inserts
(23:45):
it's d n A or RNA into the DNA of
the cell and just hang back and wait. Well, that
cell is dividing as like normal again the virus unwittingly
right without the virus even being reproduced, and now set
up to be reproduced rather than in just one cell,
now four or eight or sixteen or thirty two. And
(24:07):
then all hell breaks loose when all of them start
going at the same time because they were all exposed
to cortisol. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, viruses are amazingly
interesting and wicked, wicked, wicked things. Um So here are
some tips the way on. You know, if your office
(24:27):
is sick or you're around your four year old niece. Uh,
here's some tips from your buddies here to keep you
from getting sick. You know that there are carrier organisms
like mosquitoes and fleas. They can spread viruses. We know
it can be airborne. We already talked about bodily fluids,
whether that's nose juice or saliva or blood or semen
(24:47):
or vaginal secretions as one way you can get a
direct transfer. Uh. Surfaces on which bodily fluids have dried,
which is kind of scary to think about. Yeah, you know,
you want to keep all those secretions like off of
the surfaces because the virus can live outside of the
body for a while. Apparently flu virus can live for
(25:09):
seven days just on the surface. Yeah, that's why I like,
you sneeze in your hand and you open the door
to your office, then there's there could be a little
virus on that door knob and um, that's why they
super advise. And one of the things that we're advising
now is to wash your hands a lot if you're
sick or if you know that there are sickness around you.
(25:31):
Like I wouldn't be Howard Hughes about it, but I
wash my hands a lot when I know that there's
viruses going around. I started washing my hands a lot
more once I've found out or was told what you're
actually doing when you're washing your hand, Um, you're not
actually killing anything on your hands, any germs. What you're
doing by introducing soap is you're creating something that will
(25:54):
basically go and cling to germs on your hands, and
then when you wash off the soap, you're washing the germs.
So you're not like waging war or anything like that.
You're basically just rinsing your hands clean. Literally. So once
once I realized that, I was like, oh yeah, watching
washing hands makes a lot of sense, because before that
I was like, something doesn't do anything. Yeah, like and
(26:16):
I don't even use antibacterial soap as a rule, but
so I was like, it's definitely not doing anything. Now
I'm like, it is doing something. So let's wash our
hands as often as possible. That's a good idea, and
a really long T shirt. If you are sick, you're
going to want to cover your mouth when you sneeze
and cough, because that's just common decency. UM. You want
(26:41):
to avoid contact with anyone else's bodily fluids, whether you're
sick or not, and whether they're sick or not. It's
just you don't want to have anyone else's bodily fluids
on your in you unless you know you're like married
or something, right then unless you really love that person,
then fluids are welcome. Uh. And antibiotics and this this
(27:02):
thing's gotten blue a few times. It's a very sexy show. Yeah,
sexy virus. Uh, antibiotics aren't gonna help with um A
viral infection that is obviously for bacterial infections only. Yes,
But it occurred to me, chuck that if you you
could cure a viral infection, if in a bacteria with antibiotics,
(27:24):
it would be kind of like euthanasia, but it would
cure the viral infection. That's good point. Bacteria infective with
the virus. That's how tough viruses are. And we have
no idea how they originated or where they came from.
We don't. We just know they're super old, and the
ones that are the oldest are the ones that kill
(27:46):
the least. Yeah, if you think about it, a virus
would just by right of natural selection evolved to be
able to reproduce without killing the host, because if the
hosts serve wives, then that just increases the chances of
the virus to be spread from most most Right, So
a really deadly virus is probably newer as far as
(28:09):
humanity is concerned. And a virus that can infect more organism,
more types of organisms, like one that could make grass
sick but also make a human sick, that's probably a
pretty old virus. Old virus just sounds intimidating. Well, we
have like basically what amounts to fossilized viruses in our
(28:31):
DNA from all those viruses, those retroviruses that came in
inserted as genetic material, and our body learned to mount
a defense against them. But that that stuff is still
in the human genome. Viruses they're there are also immunizations,
of course, and you know how they work. They pre
infect your body so it knows you know how to
(28:52):
mount the the fight against it, to make sure it
has all the right equipment. It's like putting up wanted
posters in your body. Yeah, but those virus has changed slightly,
ever so slightly enough to where you have to keep
updating these vaccines so you know it keeps working well, yeah,
you know. Yeah, they evolve fairly quickly. Um. Lastly, check,
(29:13):
I want to address something. There is a I guess
a misconception or urban legend or whatever that you can
tell where there you have a viral infection or a
bacterial infection um or what kind of virus you have
based on the color of your mucus. We talked about
fluorescent or something like that. They they don't in and
(29:33):
of themselves relate to a specific type of virus or
bacterial or viral infection or anything like that. It's not true.
So that's viruses. Yeah, I got nothing else. It is
good to know how this stuff works out because, um,
you know, when you get sick, you understand a little better.
Maybe you can mentally fight the stuff more effectively. I'm
(29:53):
doing it right now. You see how I'm bleeding from
my scalp. Oh my god, I'm using a lot of
mental power. It's amazing. If you want to know more
about viruses, you can start by typing that word into
the search bar at how stuff works dot com and
it will bring up this cool article. And I said
how stuff works. So it's time for listener meal. I'm
(30:14):
gonna call this Headstones. My name is George Gilbert. I'm
a new but enthusiastic fan from the University of Washington,
Go Huskies. I was listening to your Tombstones podcast, and
I want to say that the move to churchyard burials
is a bit more complicated than you implied. Uh. If
I remember correctly, burials and churchyards began mostly as a
(30:34):
common practice because of the plague. Churches would sell spots
for burial within the church itself, in the walls and
the floors et cetera. Because there was a common belief
during the Middle Ages that being buried in the church
was being very closer to God. And if you're very
closer to God, the better off you're going to be
in the afterlife, the reasoning goes, many people would actually
(30:54):
get spots within their local church to be buried, or
at least very close to the walls outside. During the
plague gears sow Over, the amount of bodies accumulated to
be buried became too much, and they began to bury
people further outside the church, even if they had paid
for a spot inside. I read a great book on
death in London through the Ages that talked about it
that was called Necropolis. Highly recommend it. So thanks for
(31:17):
teaching me such awesome stuff, guys, I can now ask
my mother in law intelligent questions about growing up in
Germany during the Cold War thanks to your Berlin Wall program.
Nice And that is from Georgia. That was fascinating. The plague,
by the way, it was bacterial, not viral. In case
anybody was wondering like me, Yeah, we did one of
the plague, right, we did? Ye black death or black plague. Yeah, anyway,
(31:41):
who is that again, Georgia. Thanks a lot, Georgia. We
appreciate that that was a great email. Uh. If you
have a great email, you can try to tweet it
to us if it's short at s Y s K podcast.
You can post it on Facebook if you like, at
Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know, or you
can send us an email like a normal person, to
stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com, and as always,
(32:05):
in the meantime, hang out with us at our hold
on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is it
how stuff Works dot com.
Welcome to you Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff
Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm
Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, There's Jerry uh
And this is Stuff you Should Know, featuring my enormous
(00:20):
dot up nose and how appropriate. Yeah, well that was
one of the reasons why I wanted to do this.
I figured I'm a little sick right now. Yeah, yeah, still,
and uh, I wanted to know more about the monster inside.
That's right, Like, I'm not feeling great and the knowledge
is power, like we always say, exactly, Like, just from
researching this, I was like starting to break a sweat
(00:42):
and tremble and I was like, I'm getting better, and
then I passed out and hit my head. Yeah, and
I didn't have enough time to finish studying. So good,
I'm gonna have to make a lot of this up,
Chuck cool. Yeah, we've covered we covered ebola recently, and
we are definitely going to cover HIV at some point.
We just haven't gotten around to it. Yeah, but both
of those are viruses. So there's another one we talked
(01:03):
about that seemed to come up in this. I don't
remember what it was. But um, the herpies. No, no,
we know they've talked about herpes. Um, well, you know,
not mixed company. What what was it? I don't remember,
but there was definitely microbiome maybe yeah, no, I don't
remember what it was. But we've talked about viruses and
viral infections. But to me, I think viruses are one
(01:25):
of the most fascinating things on the entire planet. They're jerks, like,
we don't know where they came from. We don't quite
know how to classify them because they really kind of
operate on the line between a living in a non
living thing. Yeah, this article said, like most scientists agree,
but I found a lot of people that said that
(01:46):
they're not living things too, So yeah, um, but who
cares really, They still definitely have an effect. You know.
The weird thing is about virus is why some people
say it's living in some people say it's not living.
Is that it to to be a living thing, you
have to have something like arms. Yeah, you have to
(02:08):
have arms. Rocks rocks don't have arms, Nope, point proven, Um,
you have to have you have to be able to
carry out the processes that keep you alive. Yeah, like
you a cell a cell is the smallest living organism.
It's the smallest possible living organism because you get lower
(02:30):
than that and you have maybe the things that make
up a cell, but they can't sustain themselves. A cell
can sustain itself, and things can be made up of
cells like us, and therefore we are a living organism.
The cells that make us up are living organisms. Plants
are living organisms. But viruses they don't have any means
of carrying out the processes that keep them alive, which
(02:53):
doesn't matter because they're not alive, But more important, they
don't have any processes that allow them to reproduce. Yeah,
they're like by themselves that they're not worth very much.
They need to glom on. They're always gloming on to
everyone else's junk exactly, which is basically what a virus does.
But for something as simple as the viruses, and we'll
talk about how simple they are in a second, they
(03:16):
have devastating effects when they do start to really get busy,
you know. So Chuck I was saying, like, they don't
know exactly where viruses came from. They know they're very old.
But there there are a couple of theories. My favorite
one probably the one that's right is um that they
were former bits of cells that basically evolved into freelance renegades. Yeah,
(03:43):
which explains why certain viruses fit with certain cells. Well,
that makes sense. So they could have just been basically
like drifting genetic material that that evolved enough to say
I'm gonna learn to reproduce by hijacking renegade drifters. Yep,
So are you saying that viruses or John Rambo? Pretty much?
(04:06):
So let's talk about like what makes a virus? Uh? Yeah, Well,
like you said, a cell is is on its own
It can do its own thing. Viruses cannot. Viruses are
super tiny, about one millionth of an inch long, which
is a thousand times smaller than bacteria, which are smaller
than human cells. Most of them. There are some viruses
(04:26):
that are actually larger than the average sized bacteria, but
for the most part they are smaller, which is still
super tiny. It is like you need an electron microscope
to view these bad boys, right. Uh. And they can
infect just about any living thing. As a matter of fact,
any living thing could be theoretically infected by a virus
like a bacteria can get a viral infection. Man, that's crazy,
(04:48):
isn't that I don't se can get viruses, yeah, donkeys, Yeah,
all sorts of stuff, the whole the whole gamut from
seaweed to donkeys, the virus itself. If you just want
to look at what that that little tiny particle is is, Uh,
it's a veryon Is that how we're going to say
(05:10):
that viron viron? Yeah? Why didn't they just leave the
second eye environed? Yeah? I don't. Basically, what it is
is a set of genetic instructions. Can be either DNA
or RNA, can't be both. Uh, And it's you know,
it's just instructions, that's all it is. Well, that's that's
the nucleic acid that is part of a VIRON. Like
(05:32):
a VIRON is like a particle, it's like an individual
viral particle. Yeah, And part of that is the nucleic acid. Yeah.
And that's surrounded by capsid, which is just a protein
coating to protect it. And then sometimes if it's an
envelope virus, that will also have an envelope around that capsid.
If it's naked it doesn't need or because it just
(05:53):
doesn't have that other protein code, right, And the enveloped
ones are enveloped with this um a lipid fat of
some sort. Um. But for a naked virus, it's can.
It's made up of two things. It's got it's it's
nucleic acid and it's protein coding that protects the nucleic acid.
So it's not just nucleic acid floating around, that's right.
(06:16):
And um, the nucleic acid is like you said, it's
basically just a blueprint for how to make more viruses.
Because if speaking teleologically, a virus is its whole purpose
is to make more viruses. That's all it cares about.
And you can say, well, that applies to just about
any living organism if you get down to the bare bones. Yeah,
(06:41):
with the virus, it's like that's it, man, it's not
doing anything else. It doesn't care about playing cards. It
doesn't want to do anything but reproduce. It make you sick, Yeah,
pretty much. Uh. Their their shape varies a lot, but
there are basically three types, helical or hell equal. It's
like tube. You got your polyhedral, so it's sort of
(07:02):
like a soccer ball, and then you have your complex
shapes and they are complex there. You know, they can
look crazy, they can have tails, they can have crazy
looking spider legs like the what they have both which
one looks like the Apollo lunar Lander. I'm gonna go
with complex for sure, but yeah, yeah, I don't think
(07:23):
it could be polyhedral. It's startling how much it looks
like that. Yeah, it looks like it was made to
look like a cool little lunar Lander, or that the
lunar Lander was modeled after the virus, which didn't make
much because they wanted to infect the Moon. Two. You
may have astronaut jokes. Uh so, unlike cells that can
(07:45):
do their own thing, viruses don't have enzymes like cells
do that basically allowed to operate, uh, independently as their
own little units. Some do. Some viruses contain just enough
enzymes to take their DNA or their RNA and and
do something with it to basically primate to be transcribed
or something like that. Or they have enzymes that go
(08:08):
hijack the enzymes in the cell. So some do. Most
don't write. But um yeah, that's that's the whole point
of infecting a host cell. If all the virus wants
to do is reproduce, but it can't reproduce, that's where
the host cell comes in. That's right, They basically move
into the factory with and say we're going to use
(08:29):
your equipment. They're like, there's gonna be some big changes
around here because there's a new sheriff in town. And
the virus although all rirus just don't kill people, we
should point that out. No, And so it depending on
what kind of virus it is, whether it's naked or enveloped. UM,
(08:50):
it will attach itself to the to the host cell
and either inject it. If it's naked, it has to
stay outside the host cell and basically in x it's
um genetic material into the host cell. Or if it's enveloped,
that fat lipid coding that that makes it an enveloped
(09:11):
virus basically connects to the host cell's own fat lipid
coding and that protein codd virus can basically slip through,
just absorb right into the cell and say tada when
it makes it on the inside. Yeah. Is that what
an antigen is? I think that's the protein that has
(09:31):
to match like the antigen looks for another like protein
so it can get that type bond and if they
and if they're not similar enough, they can't bond and
infect that cell. Be wrong. In that is that right?
I don't know if that's the it sounds right, and
the reason it sounds right because I saw elsewhere in
the research that, um, that's why viruses go after specific
(09:54):
kinds of cells there there. Um, that's they recognize the
type of cells that they're capable of infecting. Right, and say,
I can bind to you very tightly, my friend. Exactly,
So let's dance exactly all right, right after this message,
we are going to get down to the nitty gritty
on what happens once they have bound themselves to that cell.
(10:22):
All right, Josh, they moved into the cell. They like
the looks of it. It's a nice open concept floor plan,
which everyone loves these days. What happens from there, well,
it depends on the virus. So let's say it was
one that injected it. It's got its genetic material floating around.
Maybe there's an enzyme that's assisting the genetic material, or
if the virus itself showed up, um, it's releasing its
(10:46):
genetic material all over the place. But basically what happened
that sounds pretty cross. Well, it is pretty gross. It
happens exactly like it like you think, yeah, um, but
the Once inside the cell, you'll see a lot that
the virus hijacks the cells um processes. Yeah, like hey,
(11:07):
we need to use your deal because we don't have
our own exactly. Um, they're not. The reason people use
the word hijack is because it really gets the point across,
but it's also because science isn't on how viruses do it,
and they they What they think basically is that if
there's an accompanying enzyme or something, the enzymes basically wait
(11:31):
for a line of other enzymes the cell zone enzymes
to go past, and then it grabs the last one
in the line that old trick, hits it over the head,
hypnotizes it basically, and then sends it back out to
go recruit other enzymes, and then all of a sudden,
the cell is it's enzymes, it's workers. If you think
(11:52):
of the enzymes is like the workers in the cell um.
They're all working for this virus, and the cells like
what the hecks going on? It's too late. The enzymes
are focused on transcribing the DNA, which ultimately just makes
more DNA or RNA for the virus, and then assembling
it with proteins that the enzymes are now making, so
(12:14):
they're now making more and more and more viruses. It's
a hostile takeover. It is very much a hostile takeover.
That's one way to go. There's another thing called a retrovirus,
which I'm a huge fan of. Some of the worst
viruses around a retroviruses, which is ironic because they actually
have the um softest impact on the host cell. But
a retrovirus goes in very quietly, hangs around and yeah,
(12:40):
because HIV is a retrovirus, UM, so is uh. I
think a flu flues a retrovirus too, I think um.
But it goes in and it it just inserts its
DNA into the cells DNA. So it's like, yeah, go
about your business or whatever. But now there's this extra
sequence that when you go over it and you transcribe
(13:02):
it and you do what this this um DNA or
this genetic material is telling you to do to make
you're gonna also, as a byproduct, spit out um viruses.
So it's just duplicating itself, it is. So that's there's
a lot of different things that can go on. But
it's like you said, there's a hostile takeover, or the
cell is tricked into making more viruses. But what happens
(13:26):
is more and more and more and more viruses are
being made within the host cell, which can be pretty
bad for the hostel. Ultimately, well yeah, because eventually the
virus is gonna leave, and they can either if it's
a naked virus, it'll bust out and just destroy the
host cell and be like, hey, I'm tired of your
little apartment. I'm just gonna burn it down because I'm
(13:48):
my own thing now and I can live on my
own um. Or if it's an envelope virus, and it'll
just kind of pinch away and keep that protective cell
membrane and just be like, well fine, I'll just take
my stuff and then leave and you're free to do
what you want. Right. Well, that's another reason why retroviruses
are easy on the host cell is because all retroviruses
(14:09):
are enveloped viruses. So these new newly made viruses just
moved to the outside membrane and bud off. And then
what happens when they bud off or when the cell
breaks open because there's so many new viruses, it ruptures
the cell. It's just pretty horrific if you think about it.
(14:29):
UM all of a sudden, you're contagious. Yeah, and it's
duplicating and spreading all throughout your body at a pretty
rapid rate. Lots of these guys. So let's let's look
at your well, let's look at you. For instance, what
have you got right now? I got something some sort
of viral infection, not the flu, probably, Yeah, you achy, fevery, no, no, feverish?
(14:57):
I mean, uh so what do you What do I have? Doc? Well,
I would say you have a cold, But I had
a cold that that turned into a sinus infection. I
may have one of those. From the color of the
stuff that's coming out of my nose, I would say
I probably have a sizes infection. Yes. Would you describe
it as a khaki? Uh? I would describe it as
a drab all of oh Man, way worse than khaki.
(15:21):
When I was sick a couple of weeks ago, I
had some serious, bright, bright, almost fluorescent yellow coming out,
which is all very gratifying to get rid of, either
with your netty potter just blowing your nose or whatever.
I've been potting like a madman. Yeah, you know, you
can overdo that when you're sick. Apparently, Yeah, I can
imagine because this just the salt. Too much salt up there,
(15:45):
and I think just fluid, like unless you really really
get it all out. Uh, it's better like you need
to dry out completely in between. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I
definitely all right. We'll just take two of these and
come back and see me next week. Well you're a
ignosing what was going on? Well, you've got a cold,
I think, um, but let's say you're in the office.
(16:06):
I think we should make this as real as possible.
I was. Let's say that I'm hanging out with my
sweet little four year old niece, who herself has a cold.
She the she the person. I don't want to name names,
but I think she's that. She's on your list now.
So alright, So your little niece probably sneezed or something,
(16:27):
or just put her dirty little hands all over your
face because she loves Uncle Josh. She she has her
dad would not allow her to have dirty hands. Okay,
I think she's probably confident around me. Uh. And what
you probably did was inhaled a virus particle, and that
probably attached to your the linings of your nasal passages,
your sinuses, because apparently there's basically only three ways that
(16:49):
a virus gets into your body. You inhale it uh,
attaches to your mucous membranes like your nose or your
gums or something, or enters through a break in skin.
That's right, So your host cell is gonna break open,
your virus is gonna move in there with and say
I'm gonna use your equipment like we talked about. Then
maybe travel to your bloodstream, travel to your lungs uh,
(17:13):
and you're gonna end up getting let's say maybe one
of the first signs as a running nose because you're
losing cells in your sinuses and now that fluid is
gonna be loosened up as a result. Yeah, the nasal,
the literal cellular lining of my sinuses is being is
rupturing it under attack. Because here's the thing. When you
go through and look at like what a virus does,
(17:34):
you're looking at what one individual virian is doing. You
don't necessarily just pick up one individual viran. You can
be exposed to many, many, many virians and they are
each reproducing producing thousands more just in one cell. So
all this is going on, it can have a pronounced effect,
(17:54):
like if you just lost one cell your in your
nasal lining. It's not gonna do much. You're probably never
ever going to notice. But if you lose a ton
of the cells at the same time, you're gonna have
a runny nose. Yeah, or if it happens in your throat,
you're gonna have a sore throat. That's right. That's just fluid.
You know, it's attacking those cells in your throat and
(18:15):
the lining, and it's dripping and just causing like a
usually some sort of inflammation. Yeah. And those because those
ruptured cells are being carried down by your nose juice
to the back of your throat, which is turn That's
what I was raised on. It's in turn um those juice, okay,
which in turn u and they attach an attack to
(18:39):
the cells lining your throat, and then this whole thing
is just going on and on and on again. Yeah.
If you've ever had aches and pains because of maybe
a flu, that's because your muscle cells are being attacked.
And it sucks because you don't know that this is
going on at first, Like it's just this war being
wags inside your body and you're like, you know, hey,
(19:01):
I'm just going to the grocery store and I'm feeling
pretty good, and by the time you start to feel
it's too late, it is too late. I'm glad you
brought that up because I did a don't be dumb
on when you're actually contagious. Yeah, what's the final on that?
So it depends on it, does it vary? The how
long you're contagious varies, But when you start is a
(19:22):
about a day before you start showing symptoms. So like,
remember how I said, if you have one cell burst
and and you're not gonna notice it, it's gonna take
many many cells to burst before you finally have a
sore throat. Well, while those things are bursting, after that
first one bursts, you're contagious, buddy. So for a day
before you even know you're sick, you're walking around infecting
(19:46):
other people. With a cold, you go from the day
before symptoms to about four days after. And with the flu,
you go from the day before symptoms to five to
seven days after. So you can still be it. It
is true and people are like, I'm not contagious anymore.
They're usually probably totally wrong, But say they're flu last
(20:06):
eight days. If they say that on day eight, they're
they're actually right. Most people say it by like day
three or four or whatever that it's all right, Well
they need to watch Don't be dumb. Josh's award winning
web series so many awards, man, I think the next
award is gonna win. Is the most divisive web series
because half the people, more than half, I think, are like, man,
(20:28):
this is the best thing ever. People are like, oh,
good at why is Josh Acton so weird? And I'll
just respond with, yeah, you don't get it, and I
mean it's definitely not for everybody. I've learned. Well, it's
very funny, I think, Uh sure, So all right, and
we mentioned fever. We're going to talk about what that
is actually doing inside your body right for this break.
(20:51):
So it took. It turns out you asked me if
I if I feel feverish, and I don't. Apparently my
body is slacking on the immune response. Well, I think
you don't always get the fever. But fever is a
good thing because your body is wired to operate optimally
at ninety eight point six. Even though I heard that
was nine eight point seven, now is that right? Yeah,
(21:12):
I heard that. The they kind of abandoned that as
like an average body temperature because it varies enough between
human beings that they're they're like, now it's this between
this rather than point six. And if you don't have that,
you're sick to somewhere in that range, let's say, uh,
chemical reactions and basically anything going on your body just
that's the temperature it likes. So when you get a fever,
(21:34):
it's actually slowing all those processes down, including the virus
is spread, because it's like, oh man, it's hot, I
can't can't work as much, that's right, Uh, which is
kind of a weird, indirect, roundabout way of slowing a
fever down or slowing an infection down. Yeah, I mean,
I guess if it works. So it's good to have
(21:55):
a fever. It is good to have a fever, and
it's it actually makes sense in strange way because some infections,
some viruses attack the very cells that are meant to
mount the immune response. Like remember a bola it goes
right after like every immune response cell it can find.
HIV goes after T cells, which attack and destroy foreign bodies,
(22:18):
so to to slow them down and to slow the
spread so that the immune response can continue and mount
a full attack is kind of clever. Yeah, And and
since you mentioned HIV, it's it's another scary one because
it's one of those viruses that can just lay in
wait and they even call it sleeping it some sometimes,
(22:41):
you know, like it's not obvious you could have HIV
and be spreading HIV without ever feeling any kind of
sick or any kind of symptoms, and um, basically eventually
that virus is gonna do its thing. You know, it
could lay in wait for years even without without acting right.
And then it depends on the virus. But they figure
(23:03):
that there's some sort of environmental trigger. One I saw
was like exposure to UV blight or something like that.
But it's the same thing herpies as a virus like
that it sleeps, which is why people who have like
say herpie simplex don't always have um cold source. It'll
(23:23):
just flare up, right, it will flare up. And they
often say, like in times of stress or something like that, Well,
the virus isn't like this person is stressed out, let's go.
There's probably cortisol triggers the virus to start reproducing. But
one of the one of the devious aspects of this
is when that when that virus sneaks in and inserts
(23:45):
it's d n A or RNA into the DNA of
the cell and just hang back and wait. Well, that
cell is dividing as like normal again the virus unwittingly
right without the virus even being reproduced, and now set
up to be reproduced rather than in just one cell,
now four or eight or sixteen or thirty two. And
(24:07):
then all hell breaks loose when all of them start
going at the same time because they were all exposed
to cortisol. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, viruses are amazingly
interesting and wicked, wicked, wicked things. Um So here are
some tips the way on. You know, if your office
(24:27):
is sick or you're around your four year old niece. Uh,
here's some tips from your buddies here to keep you
from getting sick. You know that there are carrier organisms
like mosquitoes and fleas. They can spread viruses. We know
it can be airborne. We already talked about bodily fluids,
whether that's nose juice or saliva or blood or semen
(24:47):
or vaginal secretions as one way you can get a
direct transfer. Uh. Surfaces on which bodily fluids have dried,
which is kind of scary to think about. Yeah, you know,
you want to keep all those secretions like off of
the surfaces because the virus can live outside of the
body for a while. Apparently flu virus can live for
(25:09):
seven days just on the surface. Yeah, that's why I like,
you sneeze in your hand and you open the door
to your office, then there's there could be a little
virus on that door knob and um, that's why they
super advise. And one of the things that we're advising
now is to wash your hands a lot if you're
sick or if you know that there are sickness around you.
(25:31):
Like I wouldn't be Howard Hughes about it, but I
wash my hands a lot when I know that there's
viruses going around. I started washing my hands a lot
more once I've found out or was told what you're
actually doing when you're washing your hand, Um, you're not
actually killing anything on your hands, any germs. What you're
doing by introducing soap is you're creating something that will
(25:54):
basically go and cling to germs on your hands, and
then when you wash off the soap, you're washing the germs.
So you're not like waging war or anything like that.
You're basically just rinsing your hands clean. Literally. So once
once I realized that, I was like, oh yeah, watching
washing hands makes a lot of sense, because before that
I was like, something doesn't do anything. Yeah, like and
(26:16):
I don't even use antibacterial soap as a rule, but
so I was like, it's definitely not doing anything. Now
I'm like, it is doing something. So let's wash our
hands as often as possible. That's a good idea, and
a really long T shirt. If you are sick, you're
going to want to cover your mouth when you sneeze
and cough, because that's just common decency. UM. You want
(26:41):
to avoid contact with anyone else's bodily fluids, whether you're
sick or not, and whether they're sick or not. It's
just you don't want to have anyone else's bodily fluids
on your in you unless you know you're like married
or something, right then unless you really love that person,
then fluids are welcome. Uh. And antibiotics and this this
(27:02):
thing's gotten blue a few times. It's a very sexy show. Yeah,
sexy virus. Uh, antibiotics aren't gonna help with um A
viral infection that is obviously for bacterial infections only. Yes,
But it occurred to me, chuck that if you you
could cure a viral infection, if in a bacteria with antibiotics,
(27:24):
it would be kind of like euthanasia, but it would
cure the viral infection. That's good point. Bacteria infective with
the virus. That's how tough viruses are. And we have
no idea how they originated or where they came from.
We don't. We just know they're super old, and the
ones that are the oldest are the ones that kill
(27:46):
the least. Yeah, if you think about it, a virus
would just by right of natural selection evolved to be
able to reproduce without killing the host, because if the
hosts serve wives, then that just increases the chances of
the virus to be spread from most most Right, So
a really deadly virus is probably newer as far as
(28:09):
humanity is concerned. And a virus that can infect more organism,
more types of organisms, like one that could make grass
sick but also make a human sick, that's probably a
pretty old virus. Old virus just sounds intimidating. Well, we
have like basically what amounts to fossilized viruses in our
(28:31):
DNA from all those viruses, those retroviruses that came in
inserted as genetic material, and our body learned to mount
a defense against them. But that that stuff is still
in the human genome. Viruses they're there are also immunizations,
of course, and you know how they work. They pre
infect your body so it knows you know how to
(28:52):
mount the the fight against it, to make sure it
has all the right equipment. It's like putting up wanted
posters in your body. Yeah, but those virus has changed slightly,
ever so slightly enough to where you have to keep
updating these vaccines so you know it keeps working well, yeah,
you know. Yeah, they evolve fairly quickly. Um. Lastly, check,
(29:13):
I want to address something. There is a I guess
a misconception or urban legend or whatever that you can
tell where there you have a viral infection or a
bacterial infection um or what kind of virus you have
based on the color of your mucus. We talked about
fluorescent or something like that. They they don't in and
(29:33):
of themselves relate to a specific type of virus or
bacterial or viral infection or anything like that. It's not true.
So that's viruses. Yeah, I got nothing else. It is
good to know how this stuff works out because, um,
you know, when you get sick, you understand a little better.
Maybe you can mentally fight the stuff more effectively. I'm
(29:53):
doing it right now. You see how I'm bleeding from
my scalp. Oh my god, I'm using a lot of
mental power. It's amazing. If you want to know more
about viruses, you can start by typing that word into
the search bar at how stuff works dot com and
it will bring up this cool article. And I said
how stuff works. So it's time for listener meal. I'm
(30:14):
gonna call this Headstones. My name is George Gilbert. I'm
a new but enthusiastic fan from the University of Washington,
Go Huskies. I was listening to your Tombstones podcast, and
I want to say that the move to churchyard burials
is a bit more complicated than you implied. Uh. If
I remember correctly, burials and churchyards began mostly as a
(30:34):
common practice because of the plague. Churches would sell spots
for burial within the church itself, in the walls and
the floors et cetera. Because there was a common belief
during the Middle Ages that being buried in the church
was being very closer to God. And if you're very
closer to God, the better off you're going to be
in the afterlife, the reasoning goes, many people would actually
(30:54):
get spots within their local church to be buried, or
at least very close to the walls outside. During the
plague gears sow Over, the amount of bodies accumulated to
be buried became too much, and they began to bury
people further outside the church, even if they had paid
for a spot inside. I read a great book on
death in London through the Ages that talked about it
that was called Necropolis. Highly recommend it. So thanks for
(31:17):
teaching me such awesome stuff, guys, I can now ask
my mother in law intelligent questions about growing up in
Germany during the Cold War thanks to your Berlin Wall program.
Nice And that is from Georgia. That was fascinating. The plague,
by the way, it was bacterial, not viral. In case
anybody was wondering like me, Yeah, we did one of
the plague, right, we did? Ye black death or black plague. Yeah, anyway,
(31:41):
who is that again, Georgia. Thanks a lot, Georgia. We
appreciate that that was a great email. Uh. If you
have a great email, you can try to tweet it
to us if it's short at s Y s K podcast.
You can post it on Facebook if you like, at
Facebook dot com, slash stuff you Should Know, or you
can send us an email like a normal person, to
stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com, and as always,
(32:05):
in the meantime, hang out with us at our hold
on the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is it
how stuff Works dot com.
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