How does a virus actually look like?

Viruses are very small. One thousand of them lined up next to each other would be as thick as a single hair. When scientists look for ways how to fight a virus, they use detailed 3D models. But can we see a virus for real? With cryo-em tomography and the visualization technology developed at nanographics, we can! Cryo-EM tomography data is pretty noisy, but that didn't stop us. We used machine learning and advanced visualization algorithms to show you the most detailed view of a real SARS-CoV-2 virion, in 3D, directly from the electron microscopy scans. https://nanographics.at Cryo-electron tomography data provided by Sai Li, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Molecular architecture of SARS-CoV-2: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867420311594 SARS-CoV-2 molecular model: https://nanovis.kaust.edu.sa/sars-cov-2-virus-model Paper describing how the model was made: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9224865 Online version of the model + high resolution images: https://nanographics.at/projects/sars-cov-2/ Programming and music by Peter Mindek