Microorganism
hideA microorganism (from the Greek: μικρός, mikrós, "small" and ὀργανισμός, organismós, "organism"; also spelled micro organism or micro-organism) or microbe is an organism that is microscopic (usually too small to be seen by the naked human eye). The study of microorganisms is called microbiology, a subject that began with Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of microorganisms in 1675, using a microscope of his own design.
Microorganisms are very diverse; they include bacteria, fungi, archaea, and protists; microscopic plants (called green algae); and animals such as plankton, the planarian and the amoeba. Some microbiologists also include viruses, but others consider these as non-living. Most microorganisms are unicellular (single-celled), but this is not universal, since some multicellular organisms are microscopic, while some unicellular protists and bacteria, like Thiomargarita namibiensis, are macroscopic and visible to the naked eye.
Microorganisms live in all parts of the biosphere where there is liquid water, including soil, hot springs, on the ocean floor, high in the atmosphere and deep inside rocks within the Earth's crust. Microorganisms are critical to nutrient recycling in ecosystems as they act as decomposers. As some microorganisms can fix nitrogen, they are a vital part of the nitrogen cycle, and recent studies indicate that airborne microbes may play a role in precipitation and weather.
Microbes are also exploited by people in biotechnology, both in traditional food and beverage preparation, and in modern technologies based on genetic engineering. However, pathogenic microbes are harmful, since they invade and grow within other organisms, causing diseases that kill millions of people, other animals, and plants.
For more information about Microorganism, read the full article at
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News tagged with microbes
Microbes to Take Over Ethanol Production?
Nov 20, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Not too long ago, it seemed that ethanol production was the wave of the future. The use of trash, wood chips or different types of plants -- usually grass or corn -- to make ethanol was considered ...
Bacterial 'ropes' tie down shifting Southwest
Nov 17, 2009 |
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Researchers from Arizona State University have discovered that several species of microbes (cyanobacteria), at least one found prominently in the deserts of the Southwest, have evolved the trait of rope-building ...
Microbial menagerie: Junk food binge alters community of microbes in the gut in less than a day
Nov 11, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Switching from a low-fat, plant-based diet to one high in fat and sugar alters the collection of microbes living in the gut in less than a day, with obesity-linked microbes suddenly thriving, according to ...
Climate Change, Nitrogen Loss Threaten Plant Life in Arid Desert Soils
Nov 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- In the Mojave Desert winds howl across this hottest place in North America, blowing sands across Death Valley and through empty ghost towns, swirling across treeless land for hundreds of miles. ...
Study reveals how plants and bacteria 'talk' to thwart disease
Nov 05, 2009 |
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When it comes to plants' innate immunity, like many of the dances of life, it takes two to tango. A receptor molecule in the plant pairs up with a specific molecule on the invading bacteria and, presto, the immune system ...
Iron controls patterns of nitrogen fixation in the Atlantic
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Scientists including researchers from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the University of Essex have discovered that interactions between iron supply, transported through the atmosphere from ...
Probing life's extremes in Yellowstone (w/ Podcast)
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Idaho National Laboratory biologist Frank Roberto squats on a bare, gravelly patch of ground in Yellowstone National Park's rolling backcountry. At his feet, scalding water churns in a mustard-yellow ...
Microorganism may provide key to combating giant salvinia throughout Louisiana
Nov 19, 2009 |
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A team of researchers at Louisiana Tech University has found that a naturally occurring microorganism acts as a natural herbicide against giant salvinia.
Students Send Microbe Experiment on Space Shuttle Atlantis
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An experiment by college students that will study how microbes grow in microgravity is heading to orbit aboard space shuttle Atlantis.
LSU gets to the bottom of things -- in Antarctica
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 24, 2009 |
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Antarctica has long held secrets of the earth's history locked in its icy depths, and until recently, there has been very little information on the environments that have been sealed beneath miles of ice for millions of years. ...
Watching Lyme disease-causing microbes move in ticks
Nov 16, 2009 |
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Lyme disease is caused by the microbe Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted to humans from feeding ticks.
Antimicrobials: Silver (and copper) bullets to kill bacteria
Nov 09, 2009 |
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Dana Filoti of the University of New Hampshire will present thin films of silver and copper she has developed that can kill bacteria and may one day help to cut down on hospital infections. The antimicrobial properties of ...
