This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
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Animation is a powerful medium—it transports us to another time or place, or tells gripping stories. It can also help us visualize biological processes we would never otherwise see. Decades of research have pieced together the stages of the HIV life cycle, but because the it’s so small, no one has seen the virus hijack a cell to reproduce itself as it happens. Janet Iwasa, a biology professor at the University of Utah, uses advanced animation software to bring data to life in this video for Science of HIV, a project dedicated to visualizing the virus.
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