History Main / MegaMicrobes

* Some astrobiologists speculate that there could be life on [[UsefulNotes/TheMoonsOfSaturn Titan]], thanks to its being rich in hydrocarbons, as well as water. If that's true, it's believed that those lifeforms would take the form of microbes similar to bacteria and/or archaea found on Earth...only ''huge'' (maybe the size of a sheet of typical printer paper), perhaps to take advantage of limited sunlight for photosynthesis, or simply to out-compete other organisms.

* [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-bacterium-part-one This story]] at the Website/SCPFoundation site, as well as [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-371 SCP-371.]]

** The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E11Macrocosm Macrocosm]]" has the crew dealing with [[ArtisticLicenseBiology giant basketball-sized flying viruses]]. The macrovirus makes a comeback in a ''WesternAnimatin/StarTrekLowerDecks'' episode. It even gets assimilated!

** The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E11Macrocosm Macrocosm]]" has the crew dealing with [[ArtisticLicenseBiology giant basketball-sized flying viruses]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'': [[spoiler:The Zurk enemies that infest regions of the underground city are actually descended from genetically modified bacteria that were originally designed to consume garbage. After the extinction of mankind, they evolved into macroscopic, animal-like predators that [[ExtremeOmnivore can eat basically anything]]. They retain the common microbial weakness to UV rays, however.]]

* In ''Literature/{{Illuminatus}}'', the massive sentient one-celled creature Leviathan is beleived to have been inspired by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophore xenophyophores]] discussed in Real Life, below. Creator/RobertAntonWilson and Robert Shea realised an amoeba is practically immortal - if it evades diseases and predators it has no reason or need to die - and wondered what would happen if one grew rather than divided. Over ''millenia''.
* The oldest known example of this trope dates back to a French pulp adventure ''Une Invasion de Macrobes'' / ''The Invasion of the Macrobes'' published in 1909.
* Italian short story ''I Macrobi'' ("The Macrobes") is a particularly silly example. Since microbes thrive in filth, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology pollution caused them to grow to human size]] in the future. Now called "macrobes", they have overthrown humans and made them second-class citizens. Growing grapes is forbidden, since they could be used to make alcohol which is lethal to macrobes ([[ArtisticLicenseChemistry apparently alcohol can only be made from grapes]]). To survive in the poisonous wasteland that is now Earth (and which is kept that way by the macrobes, who like it), humans ''lost their nose through evolution'' so they cannot smell the bad odors.

* Used in the ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "[[Recap/FringeS01E11Bound Bound]]" with a single-celled cold virus grown to the size of a cucumber. Yes, they did call it a "[[TaxonomicTermConfusion single-celled virus]]".

* ''Film/{{Evolution}}'': The UltimateLifeform created by the alien ecosystem is a gigantic amoeba-like being that quickly consumes every other organism before bursting onto the surface.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'': [[spoiler:The Zurk enemies that infest regions of the underground city are actually descended from genetically modified bacteria that were originally designed to consume garbage. After the extinction of mankind, they evolved in macroscopic, animal-like predators that [[ExtremeOmnivore can eat basically anything]]. They retain the common microbial weakness to UV rays, however.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheRickyGervaisShow'': One entry in Karl's diary has him posit the theory that germs will grow so large in the near-future that you'll simply choke on them instead of getting infected. It's so outrageous that instead of mocking Karl, Ricky shows [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness genuine concern]] for his mental well-being.
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':

-->-- '''Creator/KarlPilkington''', ''WesternAnimation/TheRickyGervaisShow''

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "In the Blood", the USAS spaceship ''Copernicus'' is exploring trans-space, a newly discovered AlternateUniverse which allows for near instantaneous transport between two points in space which would otherwise take years to traverse. Almost as soon as the ''Copernicus'' enters trans-space, it is bombarded with gravitons. The astrophysicist Dr. Callie Whitehorse Landau, who has just discovered that she is pregnant, begins to experience hallucinations of her late grandmother, a member of the Navajo tribe who lived her entire life in UsefulNotes/{{Arizona}}. Callie comes to the conclusion that trans-space is part of a gigantic living organism and the gravitons act as its white blood cells. The floating rocks that it also contains are essentially its red blood cells. Her hypothesis is confirmed by Dr. Lucille Kennedy, who has detected a double helix structure in the dark stars found in trans-space. Callie speculates that trans-space was able to communicate with her because she was pregnant and it recognized that there was a new life growing inside of her. Callie and Dr. Kennedy believe that trans-space is the source of all life in the normal universe.

** In an episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', the Enterprise crew fight a giant space amoeba at least as big as a planet.
** There is another episode that involves {{Puppeteer Parasite}}s that are described as single cells that act as a HiveMind.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. The episode "Macrocosm" has the crew dealing with [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Giant Basketball-sized flying viruses]].

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