Human endogenous retroviruses that colonized vertebrate DNA millions of years ago have long been dismissed as junk DNA, but researchers now know that they may play important roles in cancer, neurodegeneration, and other ailments.

Clinical trials that target human endogenous retroviruses to treat multiple sclerosis, ALS, and other ailments are underway, but many questions remain about how these sequences may disrupt our biology.

From 500-million-year-old fat to a newly discovered virus, here are some stunners from The Scientist in 2018.

As cases ramp up in Democratic Republic of Congo, the government has banned housing Ebola victims and promises police escorts for health workers at burials.

A bee researcher finds that his subjects are protected from viral infections when they dine on fungus.

Modified cryogenic electron microscopy can analyze viral structures better than ever before.

The CDC finds one in seven children exposed to the virus in utero experiences health problems by age one.

Phages that die during bacterial invasion help other viruses defeat the microbes’ immune responses.

Scientists have found a previously unknown virus in Myanmar.