SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the pandemic virus first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019.  Why that name?  Because it looked genetically similar to the virus that caused the 2003 SARS outbreak.  You've regularly seen the COVID-19 virus as a sphere with what looks like golf tees sticking out of the surface.  First, this virus is so small that you can't see it using an ordinary microscope. Bacteria are between 0.2 and 2 micrometers, so you can't even see this in a compound light microscope. Viruses are not measured in micrometers, but nanometers, which is one-thousandth a micrometer.  The coronavirus is just 50 nanometers across, or 0.05 micrometers. But visible light ranges from 300 to 700 nanometer, so light photons are too large to distinguish something so small as 50 nm. You thus turn to an electron microscope, invented in 1930, but improved to what is now called a Scanning Electron Microscope, or SEM.   Yes, instead of photons, something so small as an electron mus

Sorry for being a little late today.  I went to Shimazu Shave Ice and had a Ling Hing Mui flavored shave ice, topped with condensed cream...for $7. Looking at the  Worldometer  data of yesterday, Japan remains #1 with 230,555 new cases.  The USA is #2 at 99,061.  The pandemic epicenter has shifted from Europe to Asia/Oceania.  Ranking of major countries in terms of new cases/million population: #1  Japan  1831 #2  Australia  1733 #3  South Korea 1660 #4  New Zealand  1579 #6  Singapore  1335 #7  Taiwan  974 #8  Italy  909 #9  Austria  831 #10  Germany  783 The average for the U.S is 296 new cases/million. Most think global warming is our biggest problem.  Over-population is also way up there as a concern.  According to the  United Nations, the World will hit a population of 8 billion on November 15 .  The World reached 7 billion in 2011. Our global population is growing at its slowest rate since 1950, increasing at a rate of less than one percent growth rate/year. Fertility in two-thir

  So what is  microbe ?  Another term is microorganism, those tiny living things too small to be seen by the naked eye.  Is a virus a microbe?  Yes.  Is it alive?  That remains debatable.  As we have recently been overcome by just one, COVID-19, thought I'd deviate from the script and say few more things about viruses: Is the smallest of microbes. Walter Reed discovered the first human virus, a yellow fever virus, in 1901.  He proved that this ailment was transmitted by the bite of a mosquito.  That hospital in the DC area is named after him. 500 million rhinoviruses ( cause the common cold ) could fit on the head of a pin. There are ten viruses for every bacterium or archaeon. However,  viruses are 1000 times smaller  than bacteria or archaea. Some of you might not have previously heard of archaea, for Carl Woese only  discovered it in 1977 . Antonio van Leeuwenhoek discovered bacteria in 1676. As this is science day, a few more bits of info about  bacteria and archaea . They are