A collection of images taken from my files

by
Linda Stannard

I spy, with my little eye!

After many, many years of peering at virus particles through the electron microscope, I have still not ceased to be amazed and excited by the precision and intricacy of design in something so very, very small. "How small is that?" you may ask. Well, knowing that viruses range in size from 20 to 300 nanometers (nm) is not always enough to gain a real perception of their minute size - I find it equally difficult to perceive cosmic distances quoted in light years. So let's create a relative picture:

The head of a dress-maker's pin can provide seating accommodation for five hundred million rhinoviruses (cause of the common cold) !

Be warned!. One sneeze can generate an aerosol of enough cold viruses to infect an entire regiment!

This page is designed primarily as an introductory manual for students of virology,

but anyone who is interested is invited to take a brief "peep" at some of the inhabitants of the microbial Lilliput Land.

CONTENTS

Principles of virus architecture For a better understanding of the electron micrographs, you might like to read this first.
Electron microscopy: How images are created by negative staining

Electron microscopy images of:


Virology Key Resource Award

This page was written by Linda Stannard,
on behalf of the Division of Medical Virology,
at the University of Cape Town.