Going Viral

Cold and flu season is well and truly upon us, and whilst most of us are busy bemoaning the pesky viruses behind our sniffles and chesty coughs – one of our listeners has other ideas. Elizabeth wants to know whether we’re too hard on these oft-maligned microbes? We’ve all heard that some bacteria can be good for us, but what about viruses? Could they have a softer side too? Hannah and Dara explore the virome, from prehistoric placental proteins to ultra-precise disease fighting phages to find out if Viruses truly are the villains of the microscopic world or whether they just need a better PR team. Contributors Jonathan Ball - Professor of Molecular Virology at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Martha Clokie - Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester. Marylin Roosinck - Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at Penn State University US. Producer: Emily Bird Executive Producer: Sasha Feachem A BBC Studios Production

You can listen to Going Viral online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Going Viral is an episode from The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry by BBC.

This episode is 28:35 long.

This episode was published on Nov 7, 2025.

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