Designing a rotating global pattern of erupting spikes in 3D

Reimagining Coronavirus in 3D as a Metaphor of Global Society in Distress (Part #3)

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The challenge here, as an exercise in visual imagination, is to explore the possibilities of similarities between a pattern of "eruptions" or "explosions" at the global level of the planet and a pattern of invasively "aggressive spikes" at the molecular level. That the protein spikes are described as "club-like" is perhaps ironically appropriate in that various threats by one country to bomb other countries "back to the Stone Age" would result in a reversion to that mode of aggression (Nick Cullather, Bomb them Back to the Stone Age: an etymology, History News Network, 2006)

One inspiration is the interactive animation produced as one of the many exercises on Vertexshaderart. This permits the number of spikes on the rotating globe, and their form, to be varied. The spikes explode out and collapse back -- independently and randomly, as illustrated in screen shots below.

Screen shots of interactive animations
Reproduced from one of the many options on Vertexshaderart.