Quarantine! Quarantine! (Josh Bancroft/Creative Commons)

Pets can be difficult. If they’re not tearing up your furniture, then they’re flooding your Internet browser with obscene photos or logging all your keystrokes for some IP address in Uzbekistan. And then there’s the inevitable heartbreak when Norton Antivirus finally murders your previous pet in cold blood.

But perhaps you’re one of the vast majority who don’t value computer viruses as living things. You’ve probably never picketed outside McAfee headquarters or rescued a Trojan form your black-hearted IT department. If so, then this is the podcast for you.

Of course it’s not as if organic viruses are all that easy to nail down either. Whats it going to be, flu, are you alive or not? In this episode, Julie and I walk the fine line between living and unliving as we tackle the question of living computer viruses, the future they’re shaping and just what it all says about their human creators.

So there you have it! As always, you can find the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast on iTunes, Zune and the RSS feed. And don’t forget the free HowStuffWorks iPhone App.

Skull still intact? Follow Robert and Julie for more mind-blowing science on Twitter and Facebook.