Related topics: proceedings of the national academy of sciences , immune system , bacteria
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
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with microbes
Think again about keeping little ones so squeaky clean
Dec 08, 2009 |
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A new Northwestern University study suggests that American parents should ease up on antibacterial soap and perhaps allow their little ones a romp or two in the mud --- or at least a much better acquaintance with everyday ...
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 ...
Water Bears to Travel to Martian Moon, Test Theory of Transpermia
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 13, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny microscopic creatures commonly known as water bears (also called Tardigrades), along with a few other life forms, will be sent to the Martian moon Phobos to test whether organisms can ...
Planet's nitrogen cycle overturned by 'tiny ammonia eater of the seas'
Sep 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- It's not every day you find clues to the planet's inner workings in aquarium scum. But that's what happened a few years ago when University of Washington researchers cultured a tiny organism from the bottom ...
Mystery Solved: Marine Microbe Is Source of Rare Nutrient
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study of microscopic marine microbes, called phytoplankton, by researchers at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of South Carolina has solved a ten-year-old ...
Geographic isolation drives the evolution of a hot springs microbe
May 27, 2009 |
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Sulfolobus islandicus, a microbe that can live in boiling acid, is offering up its secrets to researchers hardy enough to capture it from the volcanic hot springs where it thrives. In a new study, researchers report that p ...
MIT reels in RNA surprise with microbial ocean catch
May 13, 2009 |
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An ingenious new method of obtaining marine microbe samples while preserving the microbes' natural gene expression has yielded an unexpected boon: the presence of many varieties of small RNAs — snippets of RNA that act as ...
Billions of years ago, microbes were key in developing modern nitrogen cycle
Biology /
Feb 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, there is much focus on evolution in animals and plants. But new research shows that for the countless billions of tiniest creatures - microbes ...
Our microbes, ourselves
Biology /
Jan 19, 2009 |
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In terms of diversity and sheer numbers, the microbes occupying the human gut easily dwarf the billions of people inhabiting the Earth. Numbering in the tens of trillions and representing many thousands of ...
New Bacterial Behavior Discovered
Dec 15, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria dance the electric slide, officially named electrokinesis by the USC geobiologists who discovered the phenomenon.
'Rock-breathing' bacteria could generate electricity and clean up oil spills
Dec 14, 2009 |
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A discovery by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) could contribute to the development of systems that use domestic or agricultural waste to generate clean electricity.
Self-destructing bacteria improve renewable biofuel production
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An Arizona State University research team has developed a process that removes a key obstacle to producing lower-cost, renewable biofuels. The team has programmed a photosynthetic microbe ...
Bacterial gut symbionts are tightly linked with the evolution of herbivory in ants
Dec 01, 2009 |
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Broadly speaking, ants have two different feeding strategies. A large proportion of all species are "carnivorous," meaning that they are generalist predators feeding on other small animals or scavenging on ...
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 ...
