How Coronaviruses Work

How coronaviruses work and assemble their progeny inside cells to eventually cause the human illness, COVID-19. Learn more It’s one of the tiniest machines on the planet — about a hundred times smaller than the average cell. It’s so small that no scientist can spot it through a typical light microscope. Only with an electron microscope can we see its spiky surface. It’s not alive, and it’s not what most of us would think of as “dead.” This teensy machine seems to survive in a kind of purgatory state, yet it has traveled across continents and oceans from host to host, and brought hundreds of nations to a standstill. Despite its diminutive size, the novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, has seemingly taken the world by surprise with its virulence. Disclaimer: This video includes an artist’s rendering of coronaviruses and how they work in the cell. These are not actual images of coronaviruses or cells. #HowC