This is what the Zika virus looks like at the atomic level

Purdue University/Kuhn and Rossmann research groups

This is the most detailed map of the Zika virus that we've ever seen.

Scientists at Purdue University and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases fired electron beams at a frozen sample of Zika to create this image, which maps the surface of the virus at a resolution of 3.8 Angstroms. That's nearly at the atomic level, smaller than a billionth of a meter. The team published its results in Science on March 31.

Mapping Zika could help researchers understand how it enters and infects human cells. You can see the surface proteins in red that allow the virus to do this.

Understanding how the virus attacks our cells could help researchers develop vaccines or drugs to stop it, the way they have for dengue and yellow fever, Zika's viral cousins.

Since there's no vaccine or treatment for Zika, scientists need to unravel as much as they can about the virus in order to stop its spread across the Americas.

Purdue University/Kuhn and Rossmann research groupsThe virus is circulating throughout most of Latin America, and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention experts expect it could spread across a large swath of the Southern US as mosquito season begins if local transmission occurs here.

Most people who contract Zika don't show any symptoms. In those who do have symptoms, they're generally relatively minor — a rash, a fever, etc. But the major worry is the growing evidence for a link between Zika and birth defects like microcephaly, a condition that causes shrunken heads and can result in cognitive delays.

Being able to see the virus at such incredible resolution will hopefully help scientists reveal Zika's weaknesses.

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