21 - 003 Real Photographs of a Coronavirus

 

At last real photographs of a coronavirus. We have got used to seeing the standard media depictions of the virus where usually an illustrator has produced the symmetrical graphical representation. They usually are made up of very simple geometric shapes and tend to look very symmetrical. Normally a sphere with evenly placed spikes protruding out in a patterned way. Not surprisingly the reality is very different since the cell growth structures in nature are at a cellular level very unstructured and random. Nature does have patterns but at different levels of magnification they vary enormously in their appearance. It is not a surprise to see that coronaviruses have what I term a fluffy cotton wool appearance. It is important to appreciate that down at these nanoscale levels our perception of solids goes into a fuzzy more hairy woolly world. It is quite likely the coronavirus sticks to a human cell in a way more imitating the way a thistle floats in air onto a woollen garment before sticking in place. The nature of movement at a nanoscale level represents itself as being very different to how we see things happening in our human sized world. It is likely that the nanoscale world has its own interpretation of physics. A sort of nanophysics. I am sure the physics laws we have defined in our earthly size of world may be applicable down at a nanoscale. This is why projecting out beyond our world into the universe into the realms of astrophysics also gives us the opportunity to see if our earthly physics rules within our tiny Solar System are still applicable out in the depths of deep space. We may find some different rules out in deep space that may also (or not) apply at the nanoscale level. This brings me back to my favourite subject of consilience but this is not to be explored today.

Look at this Nanographics website where they have taken the output from CryoET images and visually enhanced them using their animation techniques.

www.nanographics.at

CryoET stands for Electron cryotomography that can photograph biological cells in sizes down to below 1-4 nm. The samples being frozen in non-crystalline ice so they can be viewed in a 3D way. These images can be used to build up 3D animations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_cryotomography