[stephengillie]

It's as though the vesicles are email, and viruses are spam.

Previously on HN:

800 million viruses fall onto every square meter of Earth every day. They kill 20% of bacterial life every day. [0]

Video simulation of HIV infecting a cell and reproducing. [1]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16839636

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16982396

[noonespecial]

Worse than spam. They're like that chain email all your relatives kept forwarding you about Bill Gates giving you a trip to Disney World if you sent it on to 10 other people.

[derefr]

Viruses are memes. Something that a cell hears, and then can't stop repeating.

[ajuc]

If the messages between cells are e-mail, then viruses are computer viruses. The analogy is almost perfect - it's information that uses security holes to cause the host to produce and send copies of it.

[stephengillie]

And eventually the computer explodes, spreading email spam everywhere. Oh, wait.

[divs1210]

Just realised 'viral meme' is a redundant phrase.

[fjsolwmv]

Vesicles are RPCs, and viruses are... Viruses. That's why informatics stole the word "virus".