My Biotech Life

About a year ago I was checking out the latest gadgets and toys over at ThinkGeek and happened to find these interesting giant plush microbes. I thought they would be a great gift for my girlfriend… but then realized that I’d pay more on shipping than for the actual plus, so they stayed in limbo.
I forgot about the whole deal for some time until I ran across a website that sells small porcelain figures. It struck me, that I should try make similar microbes but in some other material.

Well, it turns out that I’m not too great at the sculpture stuff but my girlfriend is a natural (as far as I see…). So she made a few little critters.
Take a look at the results (keep in mind these were the first that survived the oven hardening process):

They were similar but unique renditions of the plush examples I had seen at ThinkGeek. And they ended up being amazing paper weights for my messy desk.
And next are a couple more detailed photos of them individually.

Here we have the flu (Orthomyoxvirus) in a slight radical version with the different spikes (cilia?) all around. Notice the little eyes, they all have them to give a sort of humanized plush feeling to them. :)

Next we have the famous E. coli that is fairly hard to make and maintain in one peice due to those cool purple flagells hanging out. One of my favorites, no doubt.
Another very friendly microorganism that she made was the Beer yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) that is so very usefull in a great number of ways but we always like to keep them related to beer. Right?

And then there is the microorganism responsable for Stomach aches (Shigella) which is always a barrel of fun to have lying around. That yellow just means trouble… doesn’t it?

And last but not least, one fellow we have all had the pleasure of dealing with, the common cold (Rhinovirus). When you get the sniffles, aches and pains… remember it’s this blue bug sitting there staring at you.

Ok, So that is the whole bunch of them she made and which I actually use on my desk all over the place. She even started making some for friends and some even ordered some to give to others. So, what started out as a small idea, ended up being a great hobby and she still gets some people to ask her for specific bugs and microbes.

What you think? They cool or what? :)

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