Xref: utzoo news.sysadmin:1340 sci.bio:1584
Path: utzoo!yunexus!maccs!kenm
From: kenm@maccs.McMaster.CA (...Jose)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin,sci.bio
Subject: Re: The virus
Keywords: "Worm.." "Why not..."
Message-ID: <1590@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Date: 11 Nov 88 19:50:07 GMT
Article-I.D.: maccs.1590
References: <5330@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <3595@phri.UUCP>
Reply-To: kenm@maccs.UUCP (...Jose)
Organization: McMaster U., Hamilton, Ont., Can.
Lines: 22

In article <3595@phri.UUCP> roy@phri.UUCP (Roy Smith) writes:
>spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford) writes:
>> (Note -- it's a worm, not a virus, since it can replicate itself and
>> does not hide itself inside other code.)
>	Several people have mentioned that it's a worm and not a virus.  I
>tried to explain this to my wife (who is a molecular biologist who works
>with biolgical viruses) and she didn't like the term worm.  She says that
                             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
	Actually, IT IS very much like a parastic worm, which invades
a biological system, and uses the host as a domain for its own reproduction
and activity.  It can then travel from system to system (ie. person to person
through certain types of contact).   It doesn't actually change the genetics
of a person (ie. does not attatch itself to the code), but can harm the 
system by interupting normal processes.

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"Fighting for Truth,                                         Kenneth C. Moyle
 Justice, and                                      Department of Biochemistry
 anything else that                 McMaster University  -  Hamilton, Ontario
 seems fun at the time"                                            kenm@maccs
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