We'll just have to miniaturize ourselves and shoot down those bacteria one at a time, cowboy style!
![[Image: fantastic%20voyage.jpg]](http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/fantastic%20voyage.jpg)
Actually, diseases that kill their own hosts tend to not survive, while diseases that co-exist with their hosts tend to survive to the future generations. That's why diseases tend to become more and more mild to their hosts over time: The milder versions tend to have stronger hosts, which allows them to spread more.
There are problems when formerly isolated populations with different pools of diseases meet --what's mild for one group typically isn't for the other. And the set (ecology?) of diseases that peacefully co-existed in each isolated population suddenly have to fight it out for survival as each tries to spread to the other population and achieve dominance.
That would be one of the largest problems for time travelers --the set of diseases modern immune systems are tuned to work against would be useless. Meanwhile common child diseases like measles, mumps, chicken pox, and the flu, once carried into the past, would probably kill most of the historical people you were hoping to meet.
Actually, diseases that kill their own hosts tend to not survive, while diseases that co-exist with their hosts tend to survive to the future generations. That's why diseases tend to become more and more mild to their hosts over time: The milder versions tend to have stronger hosts, which allows them to spread more.
There are problems when formerly isolated populations with different pools of diseases meet --what's mild for one group typically isn't for the other. And the set (ecology?) of diseases that peacefully co-existed in each isolated population suddenly have to fight it out for survival as each tries to spread to the other population and achieve dominance.
That would be one of the largest problems for time travelers --the set of diseases modern immune systems are tuned to work against would be useless. Meanwhile common child diseases like measles, mumps, chicken pox, and the flu, once carried into the past, would probably kill most of the historical people you were hoping to meet.
"Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta."
--Aldous Huxley, Brave New World