T23 Virus, the Lord of the Earth
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What does an origami artist confine at home at the pandemic time? Of course, fold a model of the covid virus. But such a model is a challenge if you want to maintain the geometry of the virus’ shell, its spikes, and mark the second (after the spikes) specific protein demonstrated at the surface of the shell. A good representation should satisfy several conditions:
1. A model with an artistic value, not only a technical model of the virus.
2. The structure of the virus requires hundreds of modules, so the modules should:
a. Fold in a small number of easy steps (to mitigate the work).
b. Efficiently use paper (to be light and prevent the model from collapsing under its own weight).
c. Have enough structural strength to sustain the weight of the model.
3. The module should maintain the symmetry of colors (adjacent spikes should look the same).
4. The module must allow mixing the low and high modules to obtain a 3-fold spike in a 6-fold vertex (like in the case of the coronavirus).
5. The module should create at least two different spikes, a high spike to reflect the most recognizable feature of the coronavirus, and another formation to reflect the other protein.
The diagram presents a solution satisfying all these conditions. Moreover, the designed modules may be (and actually were) used for a bunch of subsequent works resembling the structure of different viruses.
