4 ms·
Ouch, that comment: Those are not icosahedra; they're dodecahedra. A regular icosahedron has 20 faces and 12 vertices. No matter how I look at it, it seems to
by pierrec 10y ago
Ouch, that comment: Those are not icosahedra; they're dodecahedra. A regular icosahedron has 20 faces and 12 vertices.
No matter how I look at it, it seems to be right. I wonder if they have a good reason for abusing nomenclature like that. Or perhaps they'll have to issue a rather embarrassing errata stating the very title was wrong.
And an unrelated but equally bewildering thing: the page has this "editor's pick" section containing a uselessly gigantic 5672x1823px image resized to 280x90px. What the fuck.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- dekhn 10y agoI'm guessing here, but it's probably because dodecahedra have icosahedral symmetry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icosahedral_symmetry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icosahedral_symmetry) and dodecahedrons are the dual of icosahedrons (see the row equating them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsid#Triangulation_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsid#Triangulation_number) Realistically it's most likely that Baker is using the terminology from crystallography and virus studies, consistent with his background.