Bacteria have a bad reputation. Walk down the cleaning aisle of any store and you’ll see rows and rows of products promising to kill them. There are definitely some bacteria that cause problems for people, and we’ll talk about them soon, but we are going to start off positive, and talk about the many ways bacteria can be helpful.
First, decomposers help control waste. Without these bacteria, the amount of waste in soil would quickly make the soil a place where nothing could grow. Bacteria are even used in sewage treatment plants to treat our waste. Decomposers also help provide organisms with nitrogen, as was discussed earlier.
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Bacteria also have an important role in the foods we eat. Yogurt and some cheeses are made from using bacteria to ferment milk, and sauerkraut is made from using bacteria to ferment cabbage.
Once we’ve eaten, bacteria continue to help us. Bacteria line the digestive tract and help us digest food. In your gut, the number of bacteria cells is greater than the number of your own cells.
In science labs, researchers have found ways to use bacteria to produce medicines. For example, some people with the disease diabetes need insulin. Mass-produced insulin, made possible by bacteria, has lowered the cost of insulin for people suffering from this disease.
Researchers from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have figured out a way to get motion from bacteria. This team of scientists have developed a motor that is powered by bacteria movement.
Because this motor is so small (it’s only 20-microns across, where 1 micron = 1 millionth of a meter), we’ve posted a picture (above) so you can see the six revolving motor blades. Each blade has a tab that sits in a circular groove area, which is treated with a substance that makes the bacteria move only in one direction. As the bacteria moves, they push the tabs (which spins the motor). This is a great way to get power for tiny devices, such as tiny pumps inside medical devices.
What is true about bacteria is that they are made of only a single cell, are prokaryotes, and are very common. They are the most common living things on Earth. In fact, there are more bacteria living in the mouth of a single person than there are people on the planet!
Since bacteria are made of only one cell, they are very cell. The only way to see bacteria is to look at them in a microscope. When you look at bacteria in a microscope, they usually have one of three shapes.
Bacilli are shaped like rods, cocci are shaped like spheres, and spirilli are shaped like spirals. Using shapes to describe bacteria helps scientists but bacteria into groups, which is often called classification.
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