We've got pork on the brain here this week at PopSci. Earlier today we told you about how cells from a pig's bladder helped a man regenerate part of his severed finger, and if you're a PPX player, you know we just rolled out an IPO regarding PETA's recent offering of a million dollar prize for anyone who can grow meat sans-animal in a lab, hoping to negate the necessity for livestock. However, it will probably be a while before anything created in the lab will rival the one food that we can't ever manage to stop thinking about, even for dessert—bacon.

As it turns out, pigs have been the inspiration for several other recent medical and technological innovations in the last few months.

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Germophobes and OCDers may want to stop reading now, or at least seriously consider only continuing with a bottle of Purell on hand—for today, we’re talking about bacteria, those squirmy no-see-‘ems that densely cover just about every surface imaginable here on Earth, including your own skin. However much hypochondriacal hatred the mention of them can bring about, as with other quasi-oxymorons like “good cholesterol,” we’d be in a lot of trouble if it weren’t for bacteria.

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Most people's knowledge of geckos doesn't extend much beyond the Cockney-tongued lizard hawking car insurance on TV. I won’t go into the implausibility of these ads, the least of which being that a gecko wouldn’t have a chance to survive Britain’s cold climate long enough to pick up an accent. They do, however, thrive abundantly in warm, tropical climates, and in total compose nearly 15% of all reptile species on Earth. If you're fortunate enough to live in gecko country, you've probably seen them climbing and crawling over just about every surface imaginable, including the ceiling.

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Though it’s one of the most perfectly named living things on this planet, the sea cucumber, on first glance, isn't among the most exciting aquatic species. Distantly related to starfish and sea urchins, the sea cucumber in appearance lacks the brio and allure of its cousins, and except for a few variations among subspecies, the general body plan of the cucumber basically resembles a large, leathery sausage crawling along the ocean floor. Yum.

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