Re-imagining the virus
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11936065 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nancy Tomes (0000-0002-5146-162X, Stony Brook University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 235-249 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-0188 • E-ISSN: 1743-2790 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03080188.2023.2179723 |
| OpenAlex | W4372207301 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
This article tracks new conceptualizations of viruses both as a scientific object of study and a cultural object of fear and fascination. After World War II, the scientific study of viruses took on greater significance. The discovery of viral DNA and RNA revolutionized the understanding of microbial and human evolution. Technological innovations (electron microscopy, x-ray crystallography) and improvements in vaccine development gave scientists greater confidence in managing diseases such as polio and influenza. But in the 1980s, the emergence of HIV-AIDS, a deadly new virus that provoked intense stigma and discrimination, undercut that confidence. Scientific understandings of HIV led to more evolutionary, ecological views of disease origins; widely disseminated through the news and entertainment industries, those views inspired a newer, darker era of viral imaginaries. The identity of viruses as objects of scientific study, national security planning and popular culture have become difficult to disentangle as a result
Biology · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Disease · Environmental ethics · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Pandemic · Pathology · Sociology · Cuban History and Society · Global Security and Public Health · Medicine · Migration, Health, Geopolitics, Historical Geography · Philosophy · Virology
The coming plague
The Origins of Aids
Unprepared
Who Wrote the Book of Life?
A “Creation of the Media”
Pathologies of Power
How to Have Theory in an Epidemic
Who's Who among the Microbes
Writing the history of virology in the twentieth century
Natural Histories of Infectious Disease
The Life of a Virus
Aids, Homophobia, and Biomedical Discourse
Contagious
Gaming the Apocalypse in the Time of Antibiotic Resistance
Outburst! A Chilling True Story about Emerging-Virus Narratives and Pandemic Social Change
The Multiple Jeopardy of Race, Class, and Gender for Aids Risk Among Women
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |