Yeah, the Black Plague. (shiver) My kid's doing a school project on that and she wants to make a paper mache model of the bacteria. The shape's no problem, it looks like a fuzzy cucumber. The color is another thing altogether. All the slides etc have the bacteria dyed so it'll stand out and they are all lime green, flourescent yellow, purple, pink etc.
Anybody know where we can find pics of the thing in natural colors, i.e. undyed?
I'm assuming you already did a google image search? Maybe search for medical referance sites? I dunno. Interesting project.
Most likely, it will have no color at all. Sort of like the live ameoba in high school science lab swimming in the swamp water. Just a bag of stuff, like a baggie. That's why you have to stain them, so you can see them.
Note that "they think" the Black Plaque was caused by Y.Pestis, but "they" ain't sure.
Almost all bacteria are clear until they are dyed. One aspect you to investigate is the Gram reaction of the bacteria. Gram reaction is a means of categorizing the bacteria into two groups G+ and G-. G+ cells stain purple and G- cells stain pink. IIRC Yersinia is G- so you could make it pink. :)
Yeah, we have Google Image searched down to about page 40. Man, were my eyes tired. I realize why they are stained, I was just hoping against hope that someone, somewhere, has a site with natural color pics. Oh, well. If we can't find it chances are her teacher can't either so no way could she get a bad grade. 
Gimpstang, good idea about the Gram reaction. I'll get her to stick that in her report.
Trivia: there is a Web site out there which sells plush toys of all kinds of bacteria and viruses. www.giantmicrobes.com if you are interested. They have them divided into sections like airborne, tropical, and everyone's favorite: venereal. Like I said, no matter how perverted or weird your tastes or wants are, there's a Web site for it.
Jensenman wrote: Yeah, we have Google Image searched down to about page 40. Man, were my eyes tired. I realize why they are stained, I was just hoping against hope that someone, somewhere, has a site with natural color pics. Oh, well. If we can't find it chances are her teacher can't either so no way could she get a bad grade.
I have a few of those all over my desk, joys of working in biotech.
Who would have thought GRM'ers know so much about the plague?
BobOfTheFuture wrote: Who would have thought GRM'ers know so much about the plague?
we know about fiats, yugos, triumphs, austins and amcs, after that the plague isn't so scary
Jensenman wrote: Trivia: there is a Web site out there which sells plush toys of all kinds of bacteria and viruses. www.giantmicrobes.com....
Jensenman, I owe you one. That site will be perfect for all the hard-to-shop-for people on my Christmas list.
Yep its mostly going to be clear. That is why they dye the samples for viewing on a slide. I've looked at some samples under microscope, all were dyed.
Well why not make it clear? 
You could do the first ever plastic mache
billy3esq wrote:Jensenman wrote: Trivia: there is a Web site out there which sells plush toys of all kinds of bacteria and viruses. www.giantmicrobes.com....Jensenman, I owe you one. That site will be perfect for all the hard-to-shop-for people on my Christmas list.
I don't even want to know who's getting toxoplasmosis. Or chlamydia. 
I wanted to name the cat Tox, short for Tox O. Plasmosis, but my wife objected.
Jensenman wrote:billy3esq wrote:I don't even want to know who's getting toxoplasmosis. Or chlamydia.Jensenman wrote: Trivia: there is a Web site out there which sells plush toys of all kinds of bacteria and viruses. www.giantmicrobes.com....Jensenman, I owe you one. That site will be perfect for all the hard-to-shop-for people on my Christmas list.
The gift that keeps on giving
HappyAndy wrote: we know about fiats, yugos, triumphs, austins and amcs, after that the plague isn't so scary
Yeah, MG's too. Im pretty sure British-Leyland was the plague, made into a car company.
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