In the two months since the Science Scribbler: Virus Factory project was launched over 1000 volunteers have contributed more than 90,000 classifications! In this project volunteers are asked to spot viruses in images of the inside of an infected cell.
The three images shown above provide a first look at some of the results from Science Scribbler: Virus Factory. If you’ve contributed to the project, you will be familiar with the image on the bottom right (labelled ‘C’), which is like those you’ll see when you classify on the project. Each blue blob corresponds to a classification made by a volunteer to mark a virus particle. The image above (marked ‘B’) is a zoomed out version of this, and the image marked ‘A’ shows about 10,000 classifications across the three dimensional space of the cell– as with the other images, each blue blob represents the location of a virus within the cell.
Studies such as this will help us understand where viruses are located within the cell, which will provide insight about how viruses hijack their host cell’s internal machinery to create ‘virus factories’ where they replicate.
Read more about Science Scribbler: Virus Factory or classify here.
Daily Zooniverse 