Comment on viruses

Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• rockSlayer@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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  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

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• Rubisco@slrpnk.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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!

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  • moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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    • Zink@programming.dev ⁨10⁩ ⁨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!”

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  • grrgyle@slrpnk.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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 if failure

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    • dch82@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Viruses throw dung at the wall and see what sticks.

      A real life genetic algorithm, essentially.

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• Beryl@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Artist’s view of bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and look like this

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  • paddirn@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨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!”

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• prayer@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• jobby@lemmy.today ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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• flora_explora@beehaw.org ⁨10⁩ ⁨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.

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• pacmondo@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

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

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