Researchers have discovered a new type of giant virus , which replicates in a way we've never seen before. Stranger still, this entity could give us clues to the very origins of complex life. Viruses sit outside the standard tree of life , as they're made of segments of genetic material rather than cells. That makes it challenging to figure out how they originally evolved, and how they relate to living organisms. Giant viruses – so called for their huge and complex genomes, compared to that of