David Baltimore: Viruses, Viruses, Viruses

This event was digitally recorded and is available for viewing on the Caltech Theater site.

Dr. Baltimore also published Viruses, Viruses, Viruses as an article in Caltech's Engineering and Science magazine.

It is hard to open a newspaper or hear a news broadcast today without there being a story about a virus. It used to be only HIV, but now it is SARS, monkey pox, Ebola, Newcastle Disease, flu or something brand new. Why are we seemingly plagued by viruses we never heard much about before? Is it modern travel, or better methods of diagnosis or what? And how can we counter these new and awful critters? What are viruses anyway and where do they come from? Big questions for one evening's discussion of the most basic, unadorned form of life we know - the lowly but beautiful virus.

David Baltimore is president of Caltech and professor of biology.

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All Watson Lectures will be available online at Caltech's Streaming Theater.