Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Simply Amazing 190911

      It happens. The picture below is taken on an electron microscope it is a cold virus.



      Joyce and I have both come down with a severe, debilitating cold. That is not an amazing thing, or is it? Everyone has had a cold; they are easy to get.
      There is however something very amazing about a cold. The virus that causes a cold is a tiny speck that cannot be seen by a normal lighted laboratory microscope.
      The virus is 20-250 nano-meters in diameter. To put that into perspective, a human hair is 60,000-100,000 nano-meters in diameter. You catch a cold when the virus enters a human cell and from there it begins to grow. Symptoms appear in 1-3 days. The cold lasts for 7-10 days sometimes longer.
      Now here is the part I find simply amazing. That virus (ever so tiny) enters a cell and begins to grow and in just a few short days it can knock the snot out of a 170 pound human. It takes control of a body and doesn't let go until that body's immune system defeats the virus.
      By comparison it's like a speck of dust overwhelming a planet in our solar system in less than a week. That I find is simply amazing.
      
      
      
Copyright Bill Weber 2006-2019 and beyond.

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