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Frank Ryan

Goodreads Author

Born

Limerick, Ireland

Website

http://www.fprbooks.com

Genre

Nonfiction, Science, Biography

Influences

Jacob Bronowski, Horace Freeland Judson, ...more

Member Since

November 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/doctorfrank

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Frank Ryan is a consultant physician in the UK as well as being an innovative evolutionary biologist, who has introduced the concepts of aggressive symbiosis to virology, and the concepts of genomic creativity and the holobiontic human genome to the story of human evolution. His major scientific interest has been the pioneering and development of the concept of viruses as symbionts, thus bringing together the disciplines of evolutionary virology and symbiology. He has a major interest in the evolution of the human genome and the implications this has for medicine.

BOOKS

Frank's books include the recently published "The Mysterious World of the Human Genome", Virolution, Metamorphosis, Darwin's Blind Spot, Virus X, and The Forgotten Plague. Wo ...more

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Can you tell us a two-sentence horror story?

Frank Ryan I would suggest a Virus X Scenario that encircled the entire world. In other words, a virus that was utterly new to our immune system and we had no dr…moreI would suggest a Virus X Scenario that encircled the entire world. In other words, a virus that was utterly new to our immune system and we had no drug or vaccine to treat it.

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Hello, Rereading your book after 30 years, now that Covid-19 is upon us. (I remember being paranoid about Hanta when it was a current news item!) Question about the number of viruses ("Nonillions" - can't find the page at the moment) as being larger than the number of stars in the sky - how was this calculated? By permutations and combinations of the DNA/RNA bases?

Frank Ryan Hello, John,

I presume you read Virus X. In fact I have continued to work ever since then in evolutionary virology, helping to establish a new understa…moreHello, John,

I presume you read Virus X. In fact I have continued to work ever since then in evolutionary virology, helping to establish a new understanding of viruses when viewed from a symbiotic perspective.

Last year I published a new book, Virusphere, which has been recognized internationally as relevant to understanding the COVID pandemic. I am of course a consultant physician and evolutionary virologist.

Back in the early 1990s, I spent four years travelling internationally spending time with virologists entering numerous perilous plague zones, I was aware that such pandemics were inevitable. That was why I wrote the bestselling book, Virus X - as a warning. A Virus X was a virus that would be so devastating it would encircle the entire globe, be resistant to any known therapy or vaccine and cause havoc. Did anybody, outside the virus world, take any notice? Judge for yourself. COVID is of course exactly that.

I have been asked to help media and readers all over the world to explain and understand what is happening. Virusphere already explained the basis of COVID. But I thought it might help further if I revised the intro and two of the chapters to deal specifically with what is going on. Thankfully, my publisher was helpful and that revised narrative will soon be available as a revised kindle and paperback.

I would like to thank my editor at Harpercollins and my agent for their help in this.

Meanwhile I'll do my best to help.

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Frank Ryan’s books

Average rating: 3.91 · 1,709 ratings · 183 reviews · 14 distinct works • Similar authors

	Virus X 3.95 avg rating — 546 ratings — published 1996 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Virolution 3.85 avg rating — 413 ratings — published 2009 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Virusphere 3.70 avg rating — 256 ratings — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mysterious World of the Human Genome 3.91 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 2015 — 14 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Darwin's Blind Spot: The Role of Living Interactions in Evolution 4.15 avg rating — 102 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Forgotten Plague: How the Battle Against Tuberculosis Was Won - And Lost 4.14 avg rating — 102 ratings — published 1993 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Tuberculosis: the Greatest Story Never Told: The Human Story of the Search for the Cure for Tuberculosis and the New Global Threat 4.58 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 1992 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mystery of Metamorphosis: A Scientific Detective Story 3.46 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Metamorphosis: Unmasking the Mystery of How Life Transforms 3.87 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Brain Food Diet: How to Stay Young in Mind by Frank Ryan (Goodreads Author), E. Scott Ryan liked it 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Frank Ryan's Blog

12 outstanding books on genetics

I'm delighted to say that in November 2020 The Mysterious World of the Human Genome has been included in the list of "12 outstanding books revealing the mysteries of our genes.

The Mysterious World of the Human Genome Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 30, 2020 10:50 • Tags: frank-ryan

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Frank is Currently Reading

Frank Ryan is currently reading

Low Life: A Kind of Autobiography

by Jeffrey Bernard

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Mar 07, 2016 08:48AM

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Ariel

by Sylvia Plath

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Aug 16, 2015 11:22AM

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Frank Ryan is now friends with Víctor Avellaneda
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Quotes by Frank Ryan (?)

“What do scientists mean when they talk of a virus? This is not quite so elementary as some people might believe. In The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, a virus is defined as "a morbid principle, or a poisonous venom, especially one capable of being introduced into another person or animal." The dictionary takes its cue from the Latin virus, which denotes a slimy liquid, a poison, an offensive odor or taste. It is a colorful definition, redolent of medieval notions of disease origins in evil emanations, but it offers little by way of scientific understanding.”
― Frank Ryan, Virus X: Tracking the New Killer Plagues

tags: emerging-diseases, virus-x, viruses

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“With direct transmission, the genes of the symbiont will leave descendants only to the extent that the host survives and reproduces. In general, therefore, mutations in the genes of the symbiont will be established by selection only if they increase the fitness of the host.9”
― Frank Ryan, Virolution: The Most Important Evolutionary Book Since Dawkins' Selfish Gene

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“Plague culling of the host population will result in a new partnership, in which the rudiment of host will re-expand its population, but this new population, now actively co-evolving with the virus, will inevitably give rise to reproductive separation. If exogenous infection is lethal to the host, mating will kill those naïve to the persisting virus, which will remain infectious for a very long time. Meanwhile, the viral elements within the genome will multiply and insert themselves throughout the chromosomes, offering pre-evolved genes, and powerful bureaucratic manipulative sequences capable of radically changing the future evolution of what now amounts to a new holobiontic organism.”
― Frank Ryan, Virolution: The Most Important Evolutionary Book Since Dawkins' Selfish Gene

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