By Vineeth VenugopalScience’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.You’ve probably seen dozens of images of the novel coronavirus—now responsible for 1 million infections and tens of thousands of deaths.
Now, scientists have come up with a way for you to hear it: by translating the structure of its famous spike protein into music.The sounds you hear—the chiming bells, the twanging strings, the lilting flutes—all represent different aspects of the spikelike protein (above) that pokes from the virus’ surface and helps it latch onto unsuspecting cells.
Like all proteins, the spikes are made of combinations of amino acids. Using a new technique called sonification, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology