Stop 01 / 05
1 m
Playground
Adenoviruses are a common cause of respiratory infections, conjunctivitis and stomach and gut infections in children and adults [1].
Special project
Shrink 10 million times
From a playground to a single virion: seven orders of magnitude in one scroll. Every stop has a sourced fact.
Scroll down
Stop 02 / 05
10 cm
Palm
The virus spreads through close contact and through objects, if you then touch your face with unwashed hands [1]. At room temperature it survives for up to 2 weeks [2].
Stop 03 / 05
1 mm
Droplet
The virus is carried in droplets when people cough and sneeze [1].
Stop 04 / 05
10 µm
Mucosal cell
Depending on the type, the virus infects the airways, the eyes or the gut [1].
Stop 05 / 05
100 nm
Virion
A twenty-faced capsid with no envelope, about 90 nm across, with fibers at its 12 vertices. Inside is linear double-stranded DNA [3]. You can rotate the model.
Sources
- CDC (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). About Adenovirus. Updated December 16, 2025. Accessed October 7, 2026.
- Russian Ministry of Health, Union of Pediatricians of Russia. Clinical guidelines “Acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI)”, children, ID 25_3, published in the guidelines database on September 2, 2026 (in Russian). Accessed October 8, 2026.
- ICTV (International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses). ICTV Virus Taxonomy Profile: Adenoviridae 2022. J Gen Virol 103(3). Accessed October 7, 2026.
This article was prepared by our editorial team from official sources and does not replace a doctor’s advice. Found an error? Write to us.