Flu Attack! How a Virus Invades Your Body

An animated video demonstrating how influenza virus enters a human cell, penetrates the nucleus, replicate itself, and emerges to infect other cells.

In this video from NPR, science journalist Robert Krulwich and medical animator David Bolinsky demonstrate how an influenza virus enters a human cell, where it bursts, penetrates the cell’s nucleus, uses the cell’s own mechanisms to replicate itself millions of times over, and emerges to infect other cells. They also discuss how the body’s immune system helps to fight off viruses.