Pick up a fistful of garden soil and you're holding hundreds if not thousands of different kinds of microbe in your hand. A single teaspoon of that soil contains over 1000.000.000 bacteria, about120.000 fungi and 25,000 algae. Other heat-loving microbes live in volcanic cracks miles under the ocean surface where there is no light and the water is a brew of poisonous arsenic sulfur and other nasty chemicals. The little blobs shown in this photo are bacteria that live on mussel shells around a volcanic vent called the galapagos vent Some scientists even believe there is the possibility bacteria may have once lived on Mars. This photograph taken through a microscope shows what some scientists believe may be the fossils of tiny bacteria in a rock that formed on mars about 4.5 billion years ago. The rock crash-landed on earth as a meteorite thousands of years ago
• Pick up a fistful of garden soil and you're holding hundreds if not thousands of different kinds of microbe in your hand. A single teaspoon of that soil contains over 1,000,000,000 bacteria, about 120,000 fungi and 25,000 algae. • Other heat-loving microbes live in volcanic cracks miles under the ocean surface where there is no light and the water is a brew of poisonous arsenic, sulfur and other nasty chemicals. The little blobs shown in this photo are bacteria that live on mussel shells around a volcanic vent called the Galapagos Vent. • Some scientists even believe there is the possibility bacteria may have once lived on Mars. This photograph taken through a microscope shows what some scientists believe may be the fossils of tiny bacteria in a rock that formed on Mars about 4.5 billion years ago. The rock crash-landed on Earth as a meteorite thousands of years ago
Researchers are using bacteria that eat methane gas to clean up hazardous waste dumps and landfills These methane munching bacteria, or methanotrophs, (meth-an-oh-trofs make an enzyme that can break down more than 250 nasty pollutants into harmless molecules By piping methane into the soil we can increase growth of the 38 methanotrophs that normally live t in the polluted soil. More methanotrophs means faster pollution break up We're using bacteria, like those pictured here as one of the tools to clean up oil spills, like the Exxon valdez mess These bacteria chow on the oil, turning it into carbon dioxide and other harmless by-products
• Researchers are using bacteria that eat methane gas to clean up hazardous waste dumps and landfills. These methanemunching bacteria, or methanotrophs, (meth-an-oh-trofs) make an enzyme that can break down more than 250 nasty pollutants into harmless molecules. By piping methane into the soil, we can increase growth of the methanotrophs that normally live in the polluted soil. More methanotrophs means faster pollution break up. • We're using bacteria, like those pictured here, as one of the tools to clean up oil spills, like the Exxon Valdez mess. These bacteria chow on the oil, turning it into carbon dioxide and other harmless by-products
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Early Bacterial Exposure May Extend Fly Life Exposure to bacteria during the first week of adult life increased Drosophila lifespan, but exposure late in life decreased longevity, new research reports All animals develop in at least partially sterile environments and are colonized by bacteria soon after birth. In model organisms such as zebrafish paramecia, and various mammals, scientists have noted that microorganisms can have a profound effect on the animals health especially on digestion, conditioning the immune system, and longevity Seymour Benzer from the california Institute of Technology and colleagues investigated a possible connection between the microscopic fauna on Drosophila and longevity by growing the fruit flies in sterile environments, then periodically exposing them to non-sterile conditions. The researchers report that flies grown only under sterile conditions had a 30% decrease in mean lifespan Further, Benzer's team discovered a window of time during which bacterial exposure is beneficial: exposure to bacteria during the first 4-7 days of adult life produced the full life-extending effect, while exposure after 7 days had no beneficial effect. Alternatively, the researchers found that transferring adult flies from normal conditions to a sterile environment, effectively removing bacteria late in life, showed a 10% increase in longevity. Additional experiments with mutant fruit flies provided evidence that microscopic fauna interact with the host on a genetic level Benzer and his team indicate that model organisms such as Drosophila may give important clues to understanding longevity in humans and other
Early Bacterial Exposure May Extend Fly Life Exposure to bacteria during the first week of adult life increased Drosophila lifespan, but exposure late in life decreased longevity, new research reports. All animals develop in at least partially sterile environments and are colonized by bacteria soon after birth. In model organisms such as zebrafish, paramecia, and various mammals, scientists have noted that microorganisms can have a profound effect on the animal’s health, especially on digestion, conditioning the immune system, and longevity. Seymour Benzer from the California Institute of Technology and colleagues investigated a possible connection between the microscopic fauna on Drosophila and longevity by growing the fruit flies in sterile environments, then periodically exposing them to non-sterile conditions. The researchers report that flies grown only under sterile conditions had a 30% decrease in mean lifespan. Further, Benzer’s team discovered a window of time during which bacterial exposure is beneficial: exposure to bacteria during the first 4-7 days of adult life produced the full life-extending effect, while exposure after 7 days had no beneficial effect. Alternatively, the researchers found that transferring adult flies from normal conditions to a sterile environment, effectively removing bacteria late in life, showed a 10% increase in longevity. Additional experiments with mutant fruit flies provided evidence that microscopic fauna interact with the host on a genetic level. Benzer and his team indicate that model organisms such as Drosophila may give important clues to understanding longevity in humans and other animals
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