Everyone who reads newspapers knows why the name coronavirus: from Latin corona ‘crown’, in reference to the crown-shaped aspect of the virus under an electron microscope.

A virus image through electron microscopy makes a career! The beautiful coloured pictures from a scanning electron microscope really opens a gateway into other worlds. Images of the invisible look like stars in an unknown universe. The tragedy is huge, the scope wide open, uncertainty is omnipresent, fear latent. As far as I am concerned, what touches me most in this detailed reporting about infections, viruses and contamination risks is that these highly scientific contents are now reaching a broad population, presented in an accessible, understandable manner and backed with pictures and statistics.

Plus, they reach a new audience, full of curiosity and interest! People who found natural sciences boring and difficult to understand so far. The same applies to statistics: one reads about exponential spreading risks. An inconceivable dynamic. Exponential! Statistics with logarithmic scaling, percentage charts, with footnotes specifying absolute figures and figures per hundred thousand population. One definitely needs to look and listen carefully to grasp the full extent of what the infection may generate.

We hear about a doubling of the number of cases, flattening curves, about network processing of the collected data, about rapid test, testing capacities, antibody tests, immune reactions, infestation.

And all of a sudden, one thing seems crystal clear: without a basic understanding of natural sciences and mathematics, we are lost! Lost in a stream of foreign words, expert opinions and statistics. And if there is one thing to learn from the bitter lesson, it is the nonexistence of absolute truth in life sciences, especially in applied life sciences such as biology and medicine.

One thing remains true only as long as no contradictory observation has been made. A permanent search for the right theory, the attempts to reduce the boundary conditions and the many challenges given the multifactorial level.

I am convinced that these science subjects arouse the curiosity of our children, teenagers and young adults! So, let’s keep pushing them to use their intellect for the world of virology, immunology and medicine.