Jarrett Fuller interviews Emily Candela for the Design History Society podcast on the occasion of Emily Candela's awarding of the 2021 Design Writing Prize, for her article 'Designing the Virus'. They discuss Emily's research on the public circulation and life of the illustration of the COVID-19 virion released by the US Centers for Disease Control in early 2020. They look at what it means for a biomedical image to become an icon for a global crisis, and at interdisciplinary methodologies for conducting historical research at the intersection of design and science.