AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Not only are viruses microscopic, they are smaller than many other microbes, such as bacteria. Most viruses are only 20–400 nanometers in diameter, whereas human egg cells, for example, are about 120 micrometers in diameter, and the E. coli bacteria has a diameter of around 1 micrometer.

Detailed explanation-2: -A virus is a submicroscopic infection agent, so that means it’s really, really small, so it’s submicroscopic. We can’t see them with a normal light microscope – you have to use very high resolution microscopy, which is electron microscopy, to see them. They are infectious, they will make people sick.

Detailed explanation-3: -AAV is the smallest DNA virus with an average size of 20 nm. AAV was discovered in 1965 as a defective contaminating virus in an adenovirus stock (Atchison et al., 1965).

Detailed explanation-4: -COVID-19 Learning Note: Viruses are much smaller than human cells; they’re even smaller than the bacteria in our bodies. Their tiny size makes them too small to see under a light microscope and detectable only by other means. It also means they are small enough to catch a ride on a tiny sneeze droplet.

Detailed explanation-5: -Viruses are the smallest of all the microbes. They are said to be so small that 500 million rhinoviruses (which cause the common cold) could fit on to the head of a pin. They are unique because they are only alive and able to multiply inside the cells of other living things.