Microbiology can be comic

Paola Scavone; Valentina Carrasco; Ana Umpiérrez; María Morel; Daniela Arredondo; Vanesa Amarelle

doi:10.1093/femsle/fnz171

Microbiology can be comic

FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2019 Jul 1;366(14):fnz171. doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnz171.

Authors

Paola Scavone¹, Valentina Carrasco², Ana Umpiérrez¹, María Morel², Daniela Arredondo¹, Vanesa Amarelle²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Microbiology, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Uruguay.
² Department of Microbial Biochemistry and Genomics, Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable, Uruguay.

PMID: 31365071
DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnz171

Abstract

For microbiologists, the importance of microorganisms in our daily lives and their impact on our well-being is evident. However, microbiology literacy in our society is far from being enough for individuals to make informed choices and to demand actions based on that information. The vaccine hesitation movement and the alarming increase in antimicrobial resistance due to overuse and misuse of antibiotics are just two examples of how much work is needed to make our society literate in topics related to microbiology. Considering the challenges of communicating a discipline surrounded by misconceptions, which studies the role of living organisms that cannot be seen in plain sight, we need to explore different strategies to effectively contribute to microbiology literacy in our society. Here, we will comment on the use of comics for such a task.

Keywords: microbiology comics; microbiology communication; science communication.

MeSH terms

Cartoons as Topic*
Graphic Novels as Topic*
Health Communication*
Health Literacy
Humans
Microbiology / education*
Social Media