Mycoplasma refers to a genus of bacteria that lack a cell wall. Without a cell wall, they are unaffected by many common antibiotics such as penicillin or other beta-lactam antibiotics that target cell wall synthesis. They can be parasitic or saprotrophic. Several species are pathogenic in humans, including M. pneumoniae, which is an important cause of atypical pneumonia and other respiratory disorders, and M. genitalium, which is believed to be involved in pelvic inflammatory diseases. Mycoplasma is the smallest known cell and is about 0.1 micron (μm) in diameter.

The name Mycoplasma, from the Greek mykes (fungus) and plasma (formed), was first used by Albert Bernhard Frank in 1889. He thought it was a fungus, due to fungus-like characteristics.

An older name for Mycoplasma was Pleuro pneumonia-Like Organisms (PPLO), referring to organisms similar to the causative agent of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP). It was later found that the fungus-like growth pattern of M. mycoides is unique to that species.

Cali Lewis (born Luria Petrucci on January 25, 1981) is an American podcaster and Internet personality best known for her podcasts GeekBeat.TV (video),GeekBrief.TV (video), GeekBeat LIVE (video), and her guest host role on Call for Help. In 2007 she was featured in a TV commercial for GoDaddy.com which aired during the Super Bowl. In 2010 Cali became one of the founders of Opencamp, a live and streamed gathering of bloggers. Opencamp grew out of Wordcamp but includes blogs of different formats including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla!, and .NET. Cali Lewis' social media presence include a variety of platforms including Twitter and Google+ where over 400,000 total individuals are signed up to follow her tweets and posts.

Lewis hosts GeekBeat.TV three times a week on the Revision3 network. She talks about technology and gadgets in a short format, aimed at a broad audience ranging from geeks to tech newbies.

Cali also hosts My Mobile Life through the Mevio network. It's a bi-daily podcast which releases on Monday and Wednesday mornings.