Key Terms

Phage Virus:
A virus is a small, non-living, infectious agent that replicates only inside living  organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea.  Viruses are found in almost every ecosystem and are the most abundant type of biological entity. (Microphage).

 

 

Techno-virus:
The techno-virus starts as an infectious technical idea or a commitment to owning the technical device.  The virus replicates only inside of a living organism and will infect only one type of organism, the human.  Techno-viruses are found in almost every ecosystem on Earth.

 

Host organism: the living organism that a phage virus needs to infect in order to replicate and propagate

Host Individual: the living organism that conceives a techno-virus (idea) and/or commits to owning the virus (technical device)

Host range: both the phage virus and the techno-virus have a narrow host range; meaning they infect only one type of living organism

Ecosystem: within our metaphor, the ecosystem of the techno-virus will be the culture of the host individual.  For instance, we can take a student out of their cultural context and put him/her into a class but  we cannot take the culture out of the student

Quarantine: a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of a virus

Mutation: The changing of the genetic structure within a phage or techno-virus , resulting in a variant form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations (For example, the mutation of educational technology video, 1900-1990)

Attachment: irreversible attachment of the virus/techno-virus to a host organism/host individual

Injection: the virus/techno-virus inserts its information into the host organism/host individual, forcing the host to produce the necessary parts that will assemble and become progeny viruses

Replication: the virus/techno-virus replicates inside the host organism/host individual, producing thousands of progeny viruses

Lysis: The host organism/host individual releases the progeny viruses to the  open environment

 

References:

Microphage. (2003-2011). Bacteriophage Technology. Retrieved November 8,2011, from http://www.microphage.com/technology/phageBiology.cfm

 

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