if it hasn’t been mentioned yet (I didn’t check all the links). Awfully pretty.
H. pylori is pretty cool, too.
Slime mould amoebae are pretty damn cool.
Yeah, the ebola has a certain simple beauty.
But I’m surprised no one has suggested this yet.
Heh…I think I might have to slip a picture of a crowd of people in there somewhere. And maybe a chuck o’ binary code of a computer virus or somethin’…
I’d go for microcystis and/or anabaena. They don’t get the love because they can create algae mats. They’re interesting critters, though.
Blepharisma. It really is that pink.
I once had a summer job at university lab at which I would sit a dissecting scope all day and count protozoans as they would zip around. The more distintive the species the better!
Stentor is another cool one.
You can never go wrong with the coxsackievirus.
I love watching Trichomonas vaginalis swim around (second link goes to YouTube video) in a urine specimen. Watching them wiggle around… they’re adorable! But I don’t want any.
I think it’s probably a bad thing, how exciting it is to get a positive vaginal swab for trich in a lab, but it is, dammit! “We’ve got swimmers!”
The indestructible tardigrade, photogenic superhero of the microscopic world. They are technically referred to as “polyextremophilic,” which in this case means that they can live anywhere except in molten lava. Boil 'em, they laugh. Freeze 'em, they yawn. Nuke 'em, they giggle like the Pillsbury Doughboy. They can live in the deepest ocean trenches; they can live for years while totally dehydrated. We shot them into space, exposed them to vacuum for over a week, and they came back saying “Oh! That was a bit different wasn’t it? I seem to be able to stretch my limbs further now, how extraordinary!” THEY CAN LIVE IN OUTER SPACE.
Even worse, they’re cute. Just look at these little buggers. Their common name is “water bear,” which means that they’ve somehow managed to evolve a marketing strategy. You know your kids would want to collect them all. At least one species has been named after a Tolkien character. Worship them now while you have the chance.
Oh my gosh, they *are *cute! I swear, the first little guy on the wiki page is doing a Buddha-belly laugh, isn’t he? They’re like, manatee cute!
