Sarah Wettstadt started writing a blog about a year ago: “I explain the bacterial world to the general public in layterms. Each article is supported by illustrations to visualise the discussed concept either sketched by me or drawn by a professional artist with a microbiology background. I aim to discuss many different bacterial concepts (bacterial warfare, metal uptake, biofilms, virulence, AMRs) to educate the general public on a broad range of subjects, increase awareness and make them lose fear of bacteria.” Sarah has so far received a lot of positive feedback, as one can see from the reactions on her blog www.sarahs-world.blog and on social media, and not without reason: the blog’s visualizations and down to earth writing help make the complexity of the ‘little world’ attractive and comprehensible.

This is one of the entries of the microbiology community’s storytelling contest ‘Building Impact Brick by Brick’. Microbiologists can create a positive impact on society – and it’s as simple as building with Lego©: brick by brick. A march for science that changes a country’s conditions for scientists, a local event that helps parents avoid misuse of antibiotics, a citizen science project providing insights you would never see from a clinical setting. Each initiative, each story, each brick helps create awareness, influence policy and develop the conditions to develop and promote our microbiological knowledge, now and for future generations.