What does Norovirus look like? (triggers)

[SilentFrog]

Warning: May trigger.

What does the Norovirus look like?

For anyone interested, I've put up a couple of images of the dreaded Norovirus. The first image is an electron microscope image of a group of Noroviruses. They're very small, barely 40nm (nanometers) in diameter, that means you could fit about 37 thousand Norovirus particles on a pinhead.

The second image is a representation of the structure of a Norovirus up close, nasty little thing isn't it! All of those bits that jut out are soft, so if you could feel the virus, one would imagine it would feel quite squishy. Ok, technically it's a picture of the version of Noro that infects cats, but they look pretty much the same! Btw did you know that there is actually a vaccine to protect cats from Norovirus?

You might be wondering why the photos are black and white, what colour is the Norovirus? The truth of the matter is that it doesn't have colour, it's colourless (the individual viral particles are way too small to have colour). In fact, in the first image the viruses have been "stained", which means a special dye has been added to them to make them visible, otherwise we wouldn't see them! Microscopic and invisible, damn, viruses are stealthy!

Hope you found that interesting, any questions leave me a comment and I'll try and answer as best as I can.

First Image: Electron microscopy image of a cluster of Noroviruses:
http://postimg.org/image/61zakucar/

Second Image: Up close a personal, a representation of a Norovirus particle:
http://postimg.org/image/ngixh209x/

[cmu315]

Neat! The first one looks like a fish, lol

[sdfl]

I've always found micro (non-living & living) organisms to be particularly ugly things.

[kayy94]

I have always found these things pretty interesting. Also, they have a vaccine for cats but not for humans? Not fair.