Viruses a very short introduction second edition dorothy h crawford very short introductions outlines the origins structure and method of infection for a vast variety of viruses affecting us today includes the recent epidemics of ebola zika and middle east respiratory syndrome. Crawfords book delivers the three payoffs its title promises it is short it is on viruses and most importantly it is an excellent comprehensive introduction to a fascinating topic it is highly readable and understandable and teaches why viruses are one of the most important biological and health topics to understand. Viruses range in size from 20 to 300 nanometres it would take 33000 to 500000 of them side by side to stretch to 1 centimetre 04 in viruses spread in many ways although many are very specific about which host species or tissue they attack each species of virus relies on a particular method to copy itself. Viruses are big news from pandemics such as hiv to swine flu and sars we are constantly being bombarded with information about new lethal infections in this very short introduction dorothy crawford demonstrates how clever these entities really are