• Question: what is your favourite virus dude :D

    Asked by davehammonds to Ian on 11 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      I think it’s any of the bacteriophages – when I spot one under the microscope I immediately know well my microscope is working and they’re found practically anywhere you find life. There’s a picture of a typical one on my profile.

      I like them because they surprised me – I had to do a school visit to my lab and was for stuck for something to do. As we had a pond outside someone jokingly suggested pond dipping, I got curious and collected some pond water. It needed filtering and cleaning up but I found thousands of viruses in there – around a thousand million in a millilitre of pond water.

      Now if I have a dull day or need something to test the microscope I head outside and do a spot of Extreme pond dipping.

      Actually if you google Extreme Pond Dipping I’m the first two search results, the Prezi version’s the better one.

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