In this paper I use specific examples drawn from microbiology to illustrate ways in which scientists have used the genre of fantasy--in its broadest possible sense--as speculative, explanatory and heuristic devices in their work. "A Christmas fairy story for oncologists,” was a short story by the British virologist Christopher H. Andrewes in a private 1935 letter to his friend, the American researcher Peyton Rous. Using some classic fairy-tale tropes, Andrewes sketched this humorous piece to make “fantastic” speculations about the nature of certain viral infections and their place in nature, which were corroborated a few years later. A few years later, in a public lecture titled “Alice in Electronland” the Belgian-American physicist and microscopist Ladislaus Marton adapted Lewis Carroll's beloved classic to describe previously unimaginable applications of the then new electron microscope in biology. Years later Andrewes would write a second piece “Is Sex Infectious?” for publication, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on new findings about bacteria and sex in which he adopted the language and style of Broadway author Damon Runyon. I also present How’s Life in the Colonies? A Bug’ s Tale, in which a contemporary microbiologist has reimagined the world of bacteria and viruses in cartoons. Taken together, these works show that far from providing the odd creative outlet for scientists, such exercises actually play a valuable role in how they learn, think about problems, build knowledge, and disseminate information among themselves and to broader audiences.
