Where Do Viruses Come From?

How do animals get viruses to pass on to humans? That’s what listener Ian wanted to know. To find out, we’re exploring the science of virology - the study of viruses. Virologist Dr. Jasdave Chahal explains how coronavirus jumped through two species into humans, and where they came from in the first place. Plus, we’ll find out how scientists discovered viruses before even seeing them, and how they built the tools to fight back. We have more virology resources on the blog for this episode on our website, www.sciencepodcastforkids.com. Want to hear more from our interview with Jasdave? We have a bonus interview episode available for Patreons, when you pledge $1/month or more at patreon.com/tumblepodcast. Do you have questions about coronavirus? Send them to us at [email protected]. Correction: A previous version of this episode stated that viruses were first discovered in rabies. They were discovered in tobacco mosaic virus. The new version makes the correction that viruses were first hypothesized in rabies, but discovered later in tobacco plants.