The Birth of a virus

photo courtesy of Rockefeller University

What looks to be an image of outer space is actually an image taken from the first viewing of a virus being born. It just so happens to be of the HIV virus which has taken over 25 million lives in the past 25 years. Using a technique called Total Internal Reflection Microscopy, a virologist and a biophysicist were able to watch as hundreds of thousands of HIV molecules gathered to form a single particle in a living cell.

Historically, the problem seemed to be that scientists could never view the surface of a cell.

Click here to read why penetration seemed to be what was screwing everything up.