Scientists in Japan have discovered a previously unknown giant virus , offering new insight into this enigmatic category of viruses – and possibly also into the origins of multicellular life. The virus was found infecting an amoeba in a freshwater pond near Tokyo, the researchers report. They named it "ushikuvirus" after the pond, Ushiku-numa, located in Ibaraki Prefecture. Giant viruses were largely overlooked during the first century of modern virology, with initial discoveries often