SAVE $50: As of October 9, score the best AirPods Pro Prime Day deal we've

Sony Group Corp. plans a buyback of up to 2.03% of its shares over the course of the

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar use an ‘internet accountability software’ to monitor all their children's online activity

Julie Ertz to represent the US women’s national team for the last time on September 21 in a friendly against South Africa.

Nintendo Live will journey to Tokyo early next year after its North American debut.

Joey Batey said that while he hates 'Toss a Coin to Your Witcher', he understands fans's obsession with it

No. 19 Tennessee has won two straight since losing at Florida

Inter CEO Beppe Marotta has fired a warning to Chelsea over Romelu Lukaku's future.

All things considered, sex toys are doing the most. We've been lucky enough to live in a time where they are able to bless us with a wide variety of tantalizing sensations, no matter what we're in the mood for. In need of a soul-snatching suction vibrator? Or even more specifically, the top-rated suction vibrators on Amazon? We've got you covered. How about a whisper-quiet vibrator that won't risk alerting your roommates of its presence? We've got them in spades! But finding a toy that even sort-of, kind-of attempts to simulate the feeling of oral sex (at least for people who have vulvas) is a challenge.

If there’s one thing the Covid pandemic taught us, it’s that viruses shouldn’t be underestimated. People are, therefore, taking note after scientists discovered a whole new range of giant virus-like particles (VLP) that have taken on “previously unimaginable shapes and forms.” The microscopic agents, resembling everything from stars to monsters, were found in just a few handfuls of forest soil. The sample was collected from Harvard Forest, near Boston in the US back in 2019, and flown over to Germany’s Max Planck Institute. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter There, its contents were carefully examined and, at the end of last month, the findings were finally released. The team of researchers behind the investigation said that their discoveries “question our current understanding of the virosphere” and “imply that giant viruses employ a much wider array of [...] structures and mechanisms to interact with their host cells than is currently known.” In other words, the results prove how little we actually know about the universe of viruses that exist here on Earth. They also noted that the origins and functions of the different viral structures they found remain unknown – so there’s still plenty of mystery left to solve. The team at the Max Planck Institute, led by Dr Matthias Fischer, were amazed to find “an astounding diversity of virus-like particles (VLP)," in such a small sample. "Amazingly, we found that a few hundred grams of forest soil contained a greater diversity [of the structures] than that of all hitherto isolated giant viruses combined," they wrote. These included one type that resembled a supernova: Another that the teamed named the “haircut”: Another called the “turtle” morphotype: Another christened the “Christmas star”: And another called the “Gorgon” – named after the sisters with snakes for hair from Greek mythology: To clarify, VLP are molecules that closely resemble viruses, but they differ from them in one crucial way: they are non-infectious. This is because they contain no viral genetic material. Still, as virus-host systems, they are key to better understanding their potentially noxious counterparts. “[Our] findings imply that giant viruses employ a much wider array of [...] structures and mechanisms to interact with their host cells than is currently known,” the authors wrote. They ended their paper: “This fascinating window into the complex world of soil viruses leaves little doubt that the high genetic diversity of giant viruses is matched by diverse and previously unimaginable particle structures, whose origins and functions remain to be studied.” Clearly, there’s still plenty of work to be done. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Philadelphia Phillies All-Star Bryce Harper made a prediction about the Atlanta Braves starting pitcher, but it simply didn't hold true

China has called accusations that a China-based hacking group breached government-linked email accounts “disinformation,” saying they were meant to divert attention from U.S. cyber activities