Favorite Microbe Quality?

What do you like most about the microbes?

(Try to keep it to a minimum of 3 qualities per vote, please!)

I overall like their cuteness, scientific value, and uniqueness.

[kskerr]

Great poll idea, had to work hard to limit to 3 reasons !!! Should have had an "all of the above" option !

The very idea of making cute little toys out of our common ailments is amusing to me:

• "Here, catch a Cold."
• "You have a Sore Throat? So do I. He's right here."
• "Sorry about your ulcer, but it is very kind of you to give a home to these cute little guys."

But the truth is, what I really like is the "sick" factor in having these cute little plushies around my cube that represent some of the worst diseases mankind has had to deal with.

• Flu looks so cute and innocuous, but killed over 20 million people in one year alone (1918-1919).
• Bubonic Plague, cute as a button, killed off about a third of Europe (1347-1350).
• Ebola, one of the more interesting-looking of these plushies, has a lower mortality rate than those above but scores very highly on the gross-out scale.

I will eventually acquire TB and Polio, but I'm waiting for Smallpox (Mostly for its infamous effect on the Americas in the sixteenth century.).

[kskerr]

My doctor thought I had mono, I insisted I did not and proved him wrong by submitting to a blood test (live in a college town and they assume all kinds of things). I do have the mono plush, I thought about bringing it to my next appt and telling him that I do have it afterall . I agree that the concept alone makes them awesome !

I like it all!!!

[kskerr]

Seriously, what's not to love!!!!!