this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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viruses (mander.xyz)
submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Is this what some virus really looks like? It looks like Tron-era CGI.

[–] [email protected] 105 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The image is in fact CGI, but yes there are several viruses known as bacteriophages that look like this.

Trying to find this confirmed electromagnetic scan of this phage led me down a truly fascinating rabbit hole about antibacterial phage therapy, taxonomy, and more. Let your curiosity take the better of you on Wikipedia

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

Such awesome pictures

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Let's all take a moment to appreciate the 3D artist that was given the task to make this image, probably looked up a bunch of grainy references and then delivered this kick ass render.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (2 children)

At this scale we'd be seeing with electrons not photons, and everything would be gold coated. It's unlikely the head would be transparent. But other than that, not bad. False color gets applied to the B&W EM images, which helps.

Rabies is shaped like a bullet!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

hmm yes rabies looks like a bullet because once you are shot with it you are dead

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

That was my takeaway too. I knew Ebola was a big long shape, so it didn’t stand out much, but then “ohhh of course rabies just randomly looks like invisible nano bullets!”

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Dannng. Cool reference pictures, thanks for sharing.

Complex viruses seem almost too complex to function. Just from a human lead engineering standpoint, I can see so many points of failure

[–] dch82 3 points 2 months ago

Viruses throw dung at the wall and see what sticks.

A real life genetic algorithm, essentially.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Artist's view of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and look like this. They attach to the bacterial wall with these fibers that look like spider legs, and then inject their DNA into the bacteria by contracting the sheath that attaches to the DNA-containing head. They kinda work like a syringe.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago

They almost seem like just a “living” reproductive system, as if that’s the entirety of their existence. Like real-life Daleks going “IN-SEM-IN-ATE!”

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Yes, this is a bacteriophage. Truly fascinating stuff I'm lucky to work with every day.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Would you prefer it to have a little hat and mysterious (and unnecessary) white gloves ?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

More or less yes, that's the type of virus we learned about in biology class at least. Although there are various shapes a virus can have. Like covid that is round or other viruses that look more like bacteria.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Yes, I've always thought of bacteriophages as giant death robots of the virus world