• Question: In microbiology is it possible for a virus to build up enough cells for us to be able to see it without a microscope or visual aid? Also, could it become a viral organism?

    Asked by drunkirish69 to Duncan, Grant, Julie, Nik, Rachel on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Grant Campbell

      Grant Campbell answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      This is how bacteria are counted – they are too small to see, but if you spread them out and let them grow, they divide into enough cells to form a dot of cells, each of which started as a single cell – counting these dots tells you how many single cells you had to start with.

    • Photo: Duncan Gaskin

      Duncan Gaskin answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      Viruses are really really small. You’d need millions to span 1 millimetre, so to get enough to see you would need several millions. As part of my work in the past I have made enough viruses to see when they were all packed down into the bottom of a small tube, so yes you can get enough to see.

      Viruses need living cells to replicate. They infect the cells and make them make more viruses that are then released to infect more cells and so on.

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