This week on Two Knit Monkeys Vol. 5

This little guy is the dreaded book worm.  Most of us enjoy curling up and reading a good book.  Well, this guy like to curl up and EAT a good book!  Beware of those chompers!

Bookworms come in all kinds of varieties from the more common silverfish and book lice to the less common termites, moths, cockroaches, carpet beetles, biscuit beetles, drugstore beetles and many more beetle varieties.
While the classic bookworm is primarily responsible for tunneling holes through pages of older manuscripts it is the larva that are actually the bibliophile.  It spends up to five years devouring pulpy leaves of fact and fiction.  
After spending those years of chewing away on your precious books it goes through metamorphosis spreads its wings and flies away.  

This last microbe is a tribute to Jen's mother who is a retiring librarian at her former elementary school.  Congratulations, you have earned it!

We hope you enjoyed this weeks posts.  Make sure to check out ThinkGeek.com  there are a lot of fun stuff for your inner (or outer) geek.

This week on Two Knit Monkeys Vol. 4

We would like to introduce you to the life of the party, beer yeast.  Do you like the crown on his head?  This little guy has been around more than 6,000 years making all kinds of tasty beers and breads.  Mmmm Mmmm, I'm getting thirsty!

One of these little guys can reproduce and in a mere 6 hours have more than 1,000,000 cells.  It's latin name, Saccharomyces cerevidiae, actually means "sugar fungus of the beer". 
We decided to make him feel at home and sampled some of his brethren in these fine tasty brews.... 
Beer yeast here.  These two guys couldn't handle me.  After a beer and a half they threw off their lab coats and danced around like they were at a rave.  Dr. G kept singing the Ghostbuster theme song and Professor B was telling me his life story.  I hope they feel o.k. in the morning!
Make sure to stop by for our final installment where we get to meet the ever scary book worm.  See you tomorrow!

This week on Two Knit Monkeys Vol. 3

Meet the dreaded fat cell.  He may be cute but he is a dangerous fellow.  Did you know that the average human body has 40 billion of these little guys who just want to make you fat.

While fat cells have their benefits such as keep you warm, help transport Vitamins A, D, E and K throughout your body and they can keep you alive for months if the need ever arose.  Check out the Fat head on Dr. G!
Professor B wants to make sure you know that it takes 3,500 calories to make one pound of fat.  That may sound like a lot, but if you over eat by just 5% you can put on a pound a month.  Now that is a lot of fat to chew on!
The good news it that if you consume just a little less than you need, those missing calories add up too and your little fat cells will be happy to slim down to provide them.  Even better if you can stomach some exercise you can burn up to ten of these puppies in one minute!  That is some statistic!

While you may want to lose a few of these guys (we all do) just cut a few of them out of your diet, exercise a bit more and they will be eager to leave.   Even if they are incredibly cute, sometimes you gotta get rid of them.

Remember to check out ThinkGeek.com  and check out some microbes of your own!

This week on Two Knit Monkeys Vol. 2

Today we are featuring the dreaded stomach ache. Who knew that when your tummy is upset this guy is the culprit.

Dr. G is very familiar with the stomach ache bacteria. With all of the gross fattening foods he eats it is no wonder these to get along like old pals.
Professor B. is also familiar with the 'tummy ache' bacteria (as he likes to call it) He doesn't experience quite the problems Dr. G has, but everyone gets a tummy ache at some point in their lives.
Make sure to check back tomorrow for all the fat cell fun facts you can handle.

This week on Two Knit Monkeys

Good day all.  This week we are going to profile some nasty (yet really cute) bacteria.  So get ready for Professor B and Dr. G for this weeks lessons.

Our first bacterial expose` is this little blue fellow.  He is the common cold magnified to 1,000,000 times his normal size.  He looks sad because he can be a really nice guy but he doesn't have a lot of friends because he always seems to make them sick.  Don't you just want to give him a hug!
Professor B is keeping his distance.  He knows the effects this guy can cause.  He doesn't want to suffer from a runny nose, fever, scratchy throat or headache.  
Dr. G doesn't care so much about the way he will be feeling in a couple of days.  He just wants to make this common cold feel at home.  
Since the common cold is so easily spread, Professor B will probably be getting sick anyway.  Guillermo does love to share.

If you are interested in your own microbes check out ThinkGeek.com.  They have quite the selection.

Make sure to stop back later in the week to learn about stomach aches, fat cells, beer yeast and bookworms.