With the Australian state of Victoria in a stringent lockdown including a nightly curfew, to try to reduce its still high numbers of new coronavirus cases each day, this is the first of a trilogy of podcasts to focus on detailed epidemiological information about the VIRUS, the PANDEMIC and the global RESPONSE. Our expert guide is Professor John Potter, Australian born but now based in Nelson, New Zealand. John is well across the science of this virus and keeps a close eye on the streams of new research papers pouring out of medical science centres around the world. Inevitably, general and specialist journalism covering the pandemic is somewhat fragmented and disjointed over time. And the experience of being in lockdown distorts our sense of time anyway. So this trilogy is our #transitzone attempt to bring some coherence and consolidation to the often quite complex relevant information available. In this first podcast of the trilogy, we start with "What is a virus?" Some of the answers are surprising. And intriguing. This sub-microscopic "entity" has upset the entire world.RESOURCESProf John Potter Research: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=35380121900SPRINGER: https://www.springernature.com/gp/researchers/campaigns/coronavirusNEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE: https://www.nejm.org/coronavirusTHE LANCET: https://www.thelancet.com/coronavirus*TRACKERS/DASHBOARDS: https://www.statnews.com/feature/coronavirus/covid-19-tracker/ https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6In general but specialist journalism , the science writer at The Atlantic magazine, Ed Yong, has written some excellent articles. Reading his archive helps put the pandemic ia chronological perspective, at least in the United States.https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ed-yong/The magazine has also provided outside its usual paywall a large number of articles on the coronavirus pandemic.*https://www.theatlantic.com/category/what-you-need-know-coronavirus/