Anchorage Museum
  • Visit
    • Calendar
    • Hours & Tickets
    • Access
    • Parking
    • Tours
    • The Museum From Home
    • Discovery Center
    • Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center
    • Planetarium
    • Museum Store
    • Tour Operators
    • MUSE
    • Museum Rentals
    • Tell Us About Your Visit
  • Exhibitions
    • Upcoming Exhibitions
    • Current Exhibitions
    • Permanent Exhibitions
    • Archived Exhibitions
    • Traveling Exhibitions
  • Programs
    • Talks & Tours
    • Classes & Workshops
    • For Educators
    • Film & Planetarium
    • Performing & Literary Art + Creative Practice
    • Family, Youth & Homeschool
    • Special Events
  • Membership
  • Donate
  • Collections
    • Browse the Collections
    • Access & Research
    • Acquisitions Committee
    • Rights & Reproductions
    • Announcements
  • About Us
    • Governance
    • Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Anti-Racism
    • Major Projects
    • Seed Lab
    • Calls for Entry/Creative Opportunities
    • Museum Journal
    • E-Newsletter Sign-up
    • About Our Programs and Exhibitions
    • Volunteer
    • Community Support
    • Social Media Guidelines
    • Facility and Other RFP/RFQ
    • Employment
    • Contact Us
    • Press Room
  • Store
ENG more
ESP DEU FRN 漢語 日本の 한국의
  • ×
  • Virus Header Resize
    • Home
    • About Us
    • Museum Journal
    • Museum Journal Archive

    HOW VIRUS PATTERNS INSPIRED HUMAN DESIGN

    March 30, 2020

    In June 1962, Donald Caspar presented a paper, co-authored with Aaron Klug, entitled "Physical Principles in the Construction of Regular Viruses" at the Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on "Basic Mechanisms in Animal Virus Biology.”

    Among other things, they proposed that spherical viruses are shaped like small geodesic domes, a model widely accepted until the early 1980s. In 1953, Donald Caspar began his PhD in biophysics at Yale University. He met other researchers, including Aaron Klug, who was studying the polio virus and together they studied the protein shells of viruses.

    Casper made this wooden model of the polio virus.

    Designer and visionary Buckminster Fuller noticed the work on polio, particularly the similarities between viral structure and Fuller's own geodesic domes. After Fuller had become famous for constructing large geodesic domes, scientists and doctors began to provide examples of geodesic and tensegretic structures in microorganisms.

    Virus researchers asked for Fuller’s advice in explaining the structure of protein shells. Examinations of human tissue showed structures that resembled geodesic and tensegretic basketwork.

    The wooden model of the polio virus presents an inverse form of Fuller’s Flying Seedpod. Flying Seedpod was a project that Fuller realized in 1953 with students from Washington University.

    The study of folding structures of geodesic domes developed alongside progress in space exploration missions, so Fuller saw the Flying Seedpods as “the first scientifically designed apartment – a rocket capsule to the moon.”

    Here at the Anchorage Museum, some elements of the Wezup sculpture, located on the front lawn, look a lot like the folded elements of the Fuller geodesic dome before they were assembled.

    Wezup, Marek Ranis

    Share this news story
    • Share
    • Tweet
    • Share
    Go Back

    Anchorage Museum

    625 C Street
    Anchorage, AK 99501
    907-929-9200 | General
    907-929-9228 | Membership

    Contact Info

    Privacy Policy

    Hours

    Summer Hours
    MAY - SEPTEMBER Open 7 days,
    including holidays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

    First Fridays
    The first Friday of each month - Extended hours to 9 p.m.

    THIS IS DENA’INA EŁNENA.
    ANCHORAGE IS DENA’INA HOMELAND.

    Admission


    • View rates and find admission discounts.

    Buy Tickets

    Press Room

    Membership

    Share this page
    • Share on Facebook
    • Share on Twitter
    • Share on LinkedIn
    am-black