SITPW: Deoxys

[Anime Psyclone]

Welcome to a new series that I will make, Science in the Pokemon World. We will be looking at various Pokemon and things in the Pokemon series and explain the science behind them.

Deoxys is a strange Pokemon. It has a black body with a red and blue coating that covers certain parts of it’s body depending on the form it takes. It is a virus yet it can’t infect people. And how is a Deoxys a virus?

So, it seems that every Pokedex entry mentioned it’s a space virus that mutated. This is one of it’s dex entries: "An alien virus that fell to earth on a meteor underwent a DNA mutation to become this Pokémon.” In the Delta Episode we see it emerging from Grand Meteor Delta, so it seems to link up. But could a virus become a form like Deoxys? Maybe not that large or humanoid, but possibly have some similarities. In Plague Inc, the virus is known for mutating, one of the reasons people haven’t found a cure for virus diseases. Speaking of it being a virus, it came from space. And again, it could happen. Some people think that a space virus may wipe us out. And if other planets have life, it could come. If it was in a meteor, it would be shielded from space and come to Earth. And we see Deoxys was inside the meteor safe from space.

So it is possible that we find a real world Deoxys. It will be quite rare, but then again, Deoxys is a Mythical Pokemon. I just hope it gets named the Deoxys virus if it is in fact found. And since a virus needs a human body to reproduce, I think that’s why Deoxys can’t breed. I think the original virus is kept in the purple hole in it’s chest, personally. But it is surprising what Deoxys can teach us about viruses.

 

[Enzap]

@AnimePsyclone Hey, just letting you know I've moved this thread to General Pokémon Discussion since your series is about physics of the Pokémon world, which is perfect for this section.

 

[Maniacal Engineer]

Definitely an interesting concept here. In the H.G. Wells story: "War of the Worlds," the only thing that prevented the Martians from completely annihilating the human race and conquering the world was their complete lack of immunity to human viruses.
Assuming that there is other life out there, which is a very logical assumption to make, they would have their own DNA structures, and their own history with diseases. Human DNA has been ingrained with the genetic information for several viruses that we as a species encountered during our evolution. This gives us a certain degree of immunity to those viruses.
If something completely new came along, we'd have no immunities to it whatsoever.

The question does remain, though, how Deoxys could be considered a virus, and yet it does not infect anybody.
However, it does stand to reason that, in a universe where a simple virus can nearly instantly mutate into a sentient being, that said sentient being evolved beyond the need to infect people. After all, a virus's main purpose for infection is to reproduce and make more copies of itself so that it can survive and evolve/mutate.
Since Deoxys is capable of surviving without a "host body," or, more accurately, likely serves as its own "host body," and it has evolved far beyond the simple genetic structure of the virus it came from, it simply has no need to infect anybody.

Just my own thoughts on the subject.
Definitely an interesting idea for a series, and I am looking forward to more.

 

[Anime Psyclone]

Definitely an interesting idea for a series, and I am looking forward to more.

I plan to release one on Tuesdays and Thursdays.