That's hot

Possibly hotter than Dr Isis's naughty monkeys, but as it is already Dec 2nd Eppendork is too late (and currently soothing said sad moment with suitable chocolatey goodness).  However, this, is just that hot.  Now Microbes are my bag - my pretty, pretty, shiney sparkly bag, in particular bacteria, but viruses are too very, very sexy.  The Mimivirus is just that sexy.  It is huge.  Tbh Eppendork feels she needs to repeat herself - it is huge.   If you can see it under a light microscope on a Gram stained slide - its bigger than bigger, it's huge!   I love science - I love the confluence of events that happen so a 'discovery' can occur - what if they had never looked in the cooling tower?  Or in the amoeba for that matter.   Ok, so the Mimivirus challenges our perceptions about the size of viruses and just exactly what they should look like etc.  And Eppendork acknowledges that this is hot in, and of itself, but.....

Figure 2:  EM showing Mimivirus infected with Sputnik virophage

This is the really, really hot part of the Mimivirus - it has its own virophage - a virophage?  OMG how cool is that - drop dead, hotter than hot is that?  A virus that predates on a virus.  Eppendork realises that this may not excite every one , but still it's very, very cool (Eppendork may have said "oooooosssssshhhhh" when she first saw it)- and they called it Sputnik.

That's Hot!