The Bacterionomicon is an artbook bestiary, with entries for 41 “Lords of Pestilence” (infectious bacteria) and 27 “Apothecary Healers” (antibiotics).
It’s a spinoff from, and expansion of, a card game called “Healing Blade: Infectious Disease Card Battle” – but you don’t need to have played the game to enjoy the book!
• ANYONE INTERESTED IN SCIENCE OR MEDICINE. Learning is more effective when it’s fun! Paging through this book adds story, drama, and accessibility to the somewhat overwhelming fields of microbiology, pathology, and pharmacology. • MEDICAL AND NURSING STUDENTS. Study, study, study: It’s all you do! Take a break and page through this cool book. Guess what! You’re STILL studying. The mnemonic devices in this book will help drill this stuff into your brain. • MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. Stay sharp! Anything helps, and The Bacterionomiconwill light up some other parts of your brain and give you some creative mnemonic devices. Plus, it’s cool to recognize all the little scientific facts embedded in these characters. • RPG FANS. A great addition to any gamer’s collection of beasts and heroes. Make a campaign that travels through a metaphorical human body, ridding the land of evil pests, using inspiration from this book! • FANTASY ART COLLECTORS. A beautiful coffee-table book to rival any other. Put away the exobiology book for a while and dazzle them with some super-nerdy medical fantasy. • WAITERS WITH UNEVEN TABLES. Have you run out of shims for your wobbly tables? Tear out a few pages from this book – hey wait, don’t do th – c’mon, we worked hard on that!
A few years ago, physician Dr. Arun Mathews was playing the video game Mass Effect, when he realized he was using similar skills in the game as he did at work. Making judgments about antibiotic treatment based upon “good reconnaissance information,” such as bacteria cultures and patient details, reminded him of the virtual reconnaissance missions he carried out on his XBox. So he set to work creating a game about battling infectious disease, and along with his wife and his friend Francis Kong, created a mythological fantasy world called “Soma”, which was under attack by Lords of Pestilence (metaphorical bacteria) and defended by Apothecary Healers (antibiotics). Released in 2010, the card game Healing Blade proved a hit with medical professionals and fantasy fans both. Med students enjoyed using the images as a sort of mnemonic device for memorizing facts for upcoming tests. RPG fans loved the artwork and the incredible monsters and heroes.
