I couldn’t stop at just one Contagion article; the well-researched plot is simply irresistible. So, when I was outlining my publishing schedule for 2026, I decided I would write two Contagion articles. And what better way to do that than by writing about my personal interests: vaccine science
I’m so excited, and a little nervous, to share an original short story I wrote about a year ago. This is the first in what I hope will be a series of science fiction stories sprinkled between my usual articles. Expanding my writing to fiction has been an amazing
A few weeks ago, my husband and I were perusing HBO in search of a movie to watch. As we scrolled through our options, 2011’s Contagion was prominently featured as one of the most popular movies on the platform and my husband joked we could watch that instead of
How the immunes survived Stephen King’s “The Stand” I’m finally writing about my favorite fictional pandemic – and one of my favorite books of all time – Stephen King’s The Stand. If you haven’t read it…go. Go now. Read it and come back. The 1990 The Stand:
🚨New page alert!🚨 Have a movie, book, show, or more you want me to review? You can now go to the Request a Review tab on the homepage to do so! Clicking on the Review Request Form button will take you to a Google form where you can enter the
**Mild spoilers for Project Hail Mary** With the release of Project Hail Mary in theaters this past weekend, I feel a little obligated to write about it. This is partially because it’s a sci-fi story about microbial life draining away the sun’s energy, but also because I
I’m so excited to share that I’ve created a new Instagram account for my writing. Follow @christinakb_writes for Of Microbes and Men updates, teasers, and more! This is also where I’ll share news about other projects I have in the works. Make sure you follow for
Four months later and I’m finally wrapping up my thoughts on zombies. To recap, I hate zombies because they are gross and scary. But I love horror movies and outbreak scenarios. So, I decided to do some exposure therapy by watching zombie movies for Halloween. If you haven’t
**Spoilers below** This will be the last zombie movie review I post (at least for now). This movie was my personal Everest. I first saw Zombieland in 2010 at a friend’s house and I hated it. I didn’t even watch the whole thing, just the first 45 minutes
Welcome to the new home of Of Microbes and Men! In honor of the move to a new platform, the blog has had a glow-up courtesy of my amazing graphic designer, Rose Sauer. Though the site has a new URL and looks different, all of my previous Substack posts
**Spoilers below** I know Halloween is over, but I have a backlog of zombie movies I watched that I haven’t posted about. So, the parade of undead continues with Shaun of the Dead. This 2004 movie is widely regarded as a staple of the subgenre as it riffs on
**Spoilers below** After taking a quick detour with Warm Bodies, I returned to the George Romero zombie-verse with Dawn of the Dead. Online reviews tell me all of the movies in the Dead series are bangers and so far I have to agree. Dawn of the Dead is a