- The adjective “viral” was first used in 1948.
- The plural form of the virus is “viruses,” not “viri” or “virii.”
- The smallest viruses are about 20 nanometers in diameter, while the largest viruses are about 400 nanometers in diameter—which is roughly the size of the smallest bacteria.
- If you put an average-size virus next to a flea, that’s about the same as putting a human being next to a mountain that’s twice the size of Mount Everest!
- Viruses come in all sorts of shapes, and one of the most common is the icosahedron, a shape that looks like a sphere but is actually a 20-sided polygon.
- Dutch microbiologist Martinus Beijerinck used the Latin phrase “contagium vivum fluidum,” which means “soluble living germ,” to describe viruses before he coined the term “virus.”
- The English word “virus” comes from the Latin word “virus,” which means “poison” or “snake venom.”
- The term “virion” is also used to refer to a single infective viral particle.
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