Viruses may be 'watching' you – some microbes lie in wait until their hosts unknowingly give them the signal to start multiplying and kill them

Phages can sense bacterial DNA damage, which triggers them to replicate and jump ship. Design Cells/iStock via Getty Images Plus

After more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, you might picture a virus as a nasty spiked ball – a mindless killer that gets into a cell and hijacks its machinery to create a gazillion copies of itself before bursting out. For many viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the “mindless killer” epithet is essentially true.

But there’s more to virus biology than meets the eye.