This month the number of entries in the protein data base passed the 20,000 mark. The data provide microscopic images of the building blocks and functional units of living systems, an invaluable intellectual resource for biomedical researchers. The microscope used is built from software that reads the data base and drives computer graphics, widely available today. Our group's VMD is a leading visualization program for viewing static as well as dynamic structures of proteins and other biomolecules. Now downloaded by more researchers than ever, VMD features ease-of-use for beginners with greater power and flexibility for experts, e.g. as in the case of a 400,000 atom virus capsid. Running on Apple's MacOS X alongside all other common platforms (e.g., Windows, Linux), VMD 1.8.2 offers extensive visualization and analysis capabilities for structures as well as sequences. VMD is easily updated and exceptionally user friendly. VMD integrates closely with its sister programs, the molecular modeling tool NAMD, and the collaboratory suite BioCoRE.