Phages can sense bacterial DNA damage, which triggers them to replicate and jump ship. Design Cells/iStock via Getty Images PlusAfter more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, you might picture a virus as a nasty spiked ball – a mindless killer that gets into a cell and hijacks its machinery to create a gazillion copies of itself before bursting out. For many viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the “mindless killer” epithet is essentially true. But there’s more to virus