by Willie Wil­son — The Red Queen's race in Lewis Carroll's 'Al­ice in Won­der­land' is a com­mon metaphor for an evo­lu­tion­ary arms race. A good ex­am­ple can be seen in preda­tor-prey dy­nam­ics, par­tic­u­larly virus-host in­ter­ac­tions where hosts must rapidly evolve im­mu­nity to in­fec­tion for sur­vival of the species.