First Photos of Avian Flu Virus

gobexe writes "The first high-resolution close-up photographs of the H5N1 avian flu virus to be taken by a scanning electro microscope appeared in the daily "Dagens Nyeter" on Sunday, in what the newspaper said was a world exclusive."

Comments

and the point is...?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it useful to science to see this (does it reveal anything about the mechanism?)? No.
Is it useful to humanity to see this (does it show people what it is everyone is scared of?)? No (I'll bet you it isn't really blue).
Is it pretty? Kinda.

So, a world-exclusive of a kinda pretty picture. w00t.

Thanks, /. - you've made my day brighter and more fulfilled.

From the article

[Profane MuthaFucka]

Fotografen Lennart Nilsson har försökt i över ett halvår att få tag på viruset H5N1 som orsakar den dödliga fågelinfluensan. Men det har varit mycket svårt.

This translates to: "We're fucked."

Re:From the article

[richie2000]

"The photographer Lennart Nilsson has tried for six months to obtain the virus H5N1 which causes the lethal avian flu. But it has been very hard."

Oh, and the newspaper is called "Dagens Nyheter", literally "Daily News".

Re:Balls?

[penguin_asylum]

and, more importantly, can it run on linux?

Lennart Nilsson

[Anonymous Coward]

See Wikipedia.org and Google for more information about this brilliant photographer.

Those paparazzi

[jd]

They get everywhere. Even when you're minding your own business in the bloodstream of a duck, they'll STILL manage to track you down and take pictures with those really powerful telephoto lenses.

This should terrify celebrities the world over - if something this small and elusive can't escape the mercenary photographers of the tabloid press, what can?

Translation of Swedish Comments in the Flash file

[Mad Scientist In Tra]

Quick and rough translation of the Swedish commentary in the Flash graphics

Title screen) Viruses attack: here a cell is killed by the bird flu.

1) Viruses (blue) attacking a healthy cell.

2) When the viruses have managed to enter the cell, they occupy the whole cell machinery. The cell is forced to produce new viruses. They emanate from the surface of the host cell and begin their hunt for new healthy cells to kidnap.

3) A single cell can be forced to produce thousands of new viruses.

4) After a couple of days the host cell dies - exhausted by the virus production.

No Needles Needed

[tempest69]

Viruses can pull a bunch of tricks, Some phages (viral cousins) like T4 have a cool needle, spiderleg arrangement, others change shape once they bind to their victim. Others are designed to be engulfed (eaten) like HIV. They bind to a receptor, and the cell decides that they need to be eaten (a process formally called endocytosis (sp?)). Now as far as the pictures go, it can give a nice clue as to how they touch the cell. A call isnt just a flat surface, it's a big fuzzy mess of recognition glycoprotiens for all sorts of things. However the flu binds to the cell presents a target for potential drugs. If this flu is doing something novel then it needs to be understood as soon as possible. And getting a photo is a one way to notice if something funny is going on. You might notice some tree like structures in some of the photos I'm betting those are glycoprotiens, those can be pretty important. Storm

spelling flame

[jannesha]

scanning electro microscope

I think you mean scanning electron microscope, you moro!