Reporting in the laboratory is a serious business. A tiny microbe missed under the microscope is nothing less than a blunder. For reasons like this and many more we tend to remain quite sober and involved while working in the department. But sometimes it so happens that we cannot help but laugh. This happened around last week or so, everything was as usual. Screening was on in the different sections of the lab in the afternoon. Bacilli and cocci were our routine visitors but along with them we had a special guest this time. Everyone was more than excited and in fact we were all in a queue to have a look at him. We microbiologists fondly call him ‘Strongyloides’ and this is what my peers had to tell about him, amusing and interesting perspectives I must say!
A: So cute!!! [Really?]
B: Looks like a baby snake !!! [Well, he did look like one!]
C: No wonder he is called ‘STRONG’ yloides [ Quite a whipper he was!]
D: Aww…must be hungry, poor fellow.
E: No! He must be searching for someone.
F: Is he the one who causes ‘Loeffler’s Syndrome’[ A nerdy opinion this was !]
G: His esophagus!!! Can you see it??? [Nerdier...]
H: What do we do with him, why doesn’t he stay in focus? [ Ahem…]
And finally we clicked his pictures for our lab memories. In case any of you are wondering what makes him so special, here is all the microbiology associated with him
Strongyloides stercoralis-Wikipedia.While I was searching for his kinds on the Internet, I came across this list:
‘Reasons to date a Microbiologist’
-We do everything 10x 40x 100x bigger and better
- Size does not matter
- We know the meaning of complement
- We always wear protection and use sterile technique
- We can run our own pregnancy and STD tests
- We do it on a stage
- We don’t wear anything under our lab coats
- We know the importance of direct contact during conjugation
- We wash our hands before and after everything
- We love Corona virus with a lime
It’s a microbe’s world after all;-)If you do not believe here is what Bill Bryson has to say:
“Every human body consists of about 10 quadrillion cells, but about 100 quadrillion bacterial cells. They are, in short, a big part of us. From the bacteria’s point of view, of course, we are a rather small part of them”
-R.
