Friday, 28. March 2003
Topic: SCIENCE - on March 28, 2003 at 11:26:27 PM CET
World's largest virus found
A giant virus that lurks inside amoebas and may cause pneumonia in humans has been spotted by scientists. "Mimivirus" is the biggest virus found so far, and was discovered in a sample taken from a water cooling tower in Bradford, UK, in 1992.
It has at least 900 genes, an enormous number for a virus, and its size is more like that of a bacterium.
It can be spotted through a good optical microscope - most viruses can only be visualised by electron microscopes.
¬> BBC ¬> New Scientist ... Comment
