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Wednesday 13 July 2016

Bacteria are just Tiny Pokémon!

Growing up, I was the right age to get hooked on Pokémon when it started getting crazy popular. I played the game boy games to death, I still have a huge box full of cards, and would get up early so I could watch the cartoon before school. That was years ago, but I'm still doing the same stuff: reading about special creatures, collecting them and sometimes forcing them to evolve. No, I'm not still a rabid Pokémon fan (although I do love a bit of Pokken tournament, and will be jumping on Pokémon Go as soon as I can), I'm just a microbiologist!

My creatures are bacteria, and I collect them in the minus eighty freezer. They have 'types', like the ice type (psychrophiles), fire type (thermophiles) and pretty much everything else too! I work with endophytes, bacteria that live in plants, so I guess that makes me a grass type trainer?

The more I think about it, the more it fits! Bacteria can produce electricity, can be magnetic, swim, fly and produce toxins. They fight, too; their 'moves' are antibiotics they produce to attack each other with. They constantly change, adapt and evolve. Each species has many different strains, all with different 'stats', just like different individual Pokémon.

And I get to gather them, study them, and use them for great things like helping plants grow! Does that make me a Pokémon trainer? I certainly hope so! That would look sweet on my C.V....

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