im·ag·i·na·tion /iˌmajəˈnāSH(ə)n/
noun
1. the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.
Before microscopes, we were unable to see the cause of our illnesses. Myths were a way to use the imagination to explain the suffering caused by bacteria and viruses. Pandemics were thought to be a form of punishment imposed upon humans by either a deity or a demon. See More Images
A microscope is a tool that is used to see an object, which is too small for us to see with our eyes. In 1665, Robert Hooke, the artist and researcher, used one to create a book full of detailed images of what he saw. Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek used his imagination to create the word mashup, animalcule (using animal and culum), to name what he saw with the aid of a microscope, swimming around in his beer, saliva, and other bodily fluids.
Viruses are smaller than a photon, the smallest particle of light, and cannot be seen with a normal optical microscope. It wasn’t until the 1930’s, when the electron microscope was invented, that we could see what viruses look like. An electron microscope fires electrons at an object and a computer interprets how they interact with it to produce an image of the object.
A virus is a parasite. Entry, genome replication, and exit are the phases of a viral lifecycle. Entry involves attachment, penetration, and the uncoating or shedding of the capsid. After the virus has replicated itself, it assembles to form a particle to facilitate its exit or release from the host.
Preliminary work on SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has revealed that the virus is able to fuse infected cells together to form syncitia—large cells with multiple nuclei—an effect that has previously been observed in several other respiratory viruses.
syn·cy·tium /sinˈsiSHəm/
noun
BIOLOGY
plural noun: syncytia
1. a single cell or cytoplasmic mass containing several nuclei, formed by fusion of cells or by division of nuclei.
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