A note about the "Hotplate" series: I actually began this a good while before the current anthrax bioterrorism incidents, but never completed it until recently. It was intended to be a fanciful but semi-realistic set of illustrations for the process of biopathogen screening identification using solid phase immunoassay. Now the issue is very real and relevant, but the illustrations are still fictional.
Art has always been and still is a good way to try to directly confront and alleviate the fears and concerns of the real world ; truth often remains stranger, and sometimes even scarier, than fiction.