If you have always wanted to know what coral reefs and the human oral cavity have in common, listen as guests David Pride and Forest Rohwer talk about their work on the microbiomes and viromes of these two environments, and you’ll also understand why mucus is cool.

Project Premonition, a Microsoft Research project that uses drones to capture mosquitoes and analyze them for pathogens, preprint servers, and three mouse models for Zika virus induced birth defects are the topics of this episode hosted by the TWiumvirate and theirs guests Ethan and Jonathan.

Preprint servers, the structure of an antibody bound to Zika virus, blocking Zika virus replication in mosquitoes with Wolbachia, and killing carp in Australia with a herpesvirus are topics of this episode hosted by Vincent, Dickson, Alan, and Kathy.

Nina Martin joins the TWiV team to talk about the movie Vaxxed, her bout with dengue fever, and the latest research on Zika virus.

Ted and Welkin inform the TWiV team how the evolution of ancient retroviruses can be inferred by their sequences in the genomes of modern mammals, and join in a discussion of virus dispersal during different methods for drying hands.

Stuart joins Vincent and Dickson to talk about his sequel to Ignorance, a book called Failure, which seeks to make science more appealing by revealing its faults.

Nischay and Ian join the TWiVions to discuss mass die-offs of tilapia by a novel orthomyxo-like virus, Ian’s editorial on the movie Vaxxed, and new vaccines to prevent dengue virus infections, including a human challenge model.

Esper and the Merry TWiXters analyze the latest data on Zika virus and microcephaly in Brazil, and discuss publications on a mouse model for disease, infection of a fetus, mosquito vector competence, and the cryo-EM structure of the virus particle.