Quote from Bigdog

@doc.....serious question....humor me

This is a picture of a corona virus

what happens if you blow it to pieces? Are the pieces dangerous or just this thing as a whole?

Does it need to be whole to function?

You'll get a bunch of these:

I had to decide between 'serious question' and 'humor me'. Went for humor.

I think you're OK as long as you don't go swimming

We, (Justina, my 87 year old mother, and me), just returned from a trip to Norway transferring through Medford Oregon, (twice), Denver, (twice), Oslo, (twice), Tromso, (twice), Frankfurt, Munich......................

Bill

Quote from wjfyfe

We, (Justina, my 87 year old mother, and me), just returned from a trip to Norway transferring through Medford Oregon, (twice), Denver, (twice), Oslo, (twice), Tromso, (twice), Frankfurt, Munich......................

Bill

Hope all is well and continues so....

Quote from Bigdog

@doc.....serious question....humor me

This is a picture of a corona virus

what happens if you blow it to pieces? Are the pieces dangerous or just this thing as a whole?

Does it need to be whole to function?

I don't think that's an actual electron micrograph. Too clear & sharp. Probably a photoshopped representation.

Pieces of a virus' outer coat are not infectious, in fact are often used to make vaccines. If your immune system recognizes the outer coat, your antibodies can clobber the virus.

It is the DNA inside the spreads the disease. Viral DNA hijacks the cell's reproductive machinery and forces it to make copies of itself. This is the only way viruses reproduce. They cannot reproduce by themselves, which is why some biologists do not consider them to be "alive".

This is obviously a very thin sketch of a very complex subject, but I hope it helps.