The most interesting facts about bacteria: overview, description and types. The concept of microbes The role of bacteria in human economic activity

The message about bacteria can be used to prepare for a biology lesson. The report on bacteria can be supplemented with interesting facts.

Report on the topic "Bacteria"

The smallest living organisms are bacteria. Everyone knows about their harm, but they can also be beneficial.

What is bacteria?

bacteria is single-celled organisms of microscopic size, one of the varieties of microbes.

They can be found in every corner of our planet - in Antarctica, and in the ocean, and in space, and in hot springs, and in the most salty reservoirs.

The total weight of bacteria in each person reaches 2 kg! And their sizes rarely exceed 0.5 microns.

A huge number of bacteria inhabit the body of animals, performing various functions there.

What do bacteria look like?

They can be rod-shaped, spherical, spiral and other shapes. However, most of them are colorless, only rare species are colored in green and purple. Moreover, over the course of billions of years, they change only internally, while their appearance remains unchanged.

Who discovered bacteria?

The first researcher of the microcosm is the Dutch naturalist Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek. It was he who invented the first microscope. In fact, it was a tiny lens with a diameter of a pea, which gave a magnification of 200-300 times. It was possible to use it only by pressing it to the eye.

In 1683, he discovered and later described "living animals" seen through a lens in a drop of rainwater. Over the next 50 years, he was engaged in the study of various microorganisms, describing more than 200 of their species. Thanks to Leeuwenhoek, a new science arose - microbiology.

General information about bacteria

It is to bacteria that our planet owes the birth of multicellular life forms. They play a major role in maintaining the circulation of substances on Earth. Generations of people replace each other, plants die off, household waste and obsolete shells of various creatures accumulate - all this is utilized and decomposed with the help of bacteria in the process of decay. And the resulting chemical compounds are returned to the environment.

There are good and bad bacteria.

"Bad" bacteria lead to the spread of a huge number of diseases, ranging from plague and cholera to ordinary whooping cough and dysentery. They enter our body by airborne droplets, along with food, water and through the skin. Bacteria can live in our organs, and while our immune system copes with them, they do not manifest themselves in any way. The speed of their reproduction is amazing. Every 20 minutes their number doubles. This means that one single pathogenic microbe, in 12 hours, generates a multi-million army of the same bacteria that attack the body.

There is another danger posed by bacteria. They cause poisoning in people who consume spoiled foods - canned food, sausages, etc.

A great breakthrough in the fight against pathogenic bacteria was the discovery in 1928 of penicillin, the world's first antibiotic that can inhibit the growth and reproduction of bacteria. So people learned to treat diseases that previously led to death.

But bacteria are able to adapt to the action of antibiotics. This ability of bacteria to mutate has become a real threat to human health and has led to the emergence of incurable infections.

Now let's talk about "good" bacteria. Good bacteria live in the mouth, on the skin, in the stomach and other organs.
Most of them are extremely useful (they help digest food, participate in the synthesis of certain vitamins, and even protect us from their disease-causing counterparts).
Interestingly, bacteria are sensitive to the taste preferences of people.

In Americans who traditionally consume high-calorie foods (fast foods, hamburgers), bacteria are able to digest foods high in fat. And in some Japanese, intestinal bacteria are adapted to digest algae.

The role of bacteria in human life

People began to use bacteria even before they were discovered. Since ancient times, people have been making wine, fermenting vegetables, preparing kefir, curdled milk and koumiss, cottage cheese and cheeses.
Much later, it was found that bacteria are involved in all these processes.

People are constantly expanding their scope - they were "trained" to fight plant pests and enrich the soil with nitrogen, ensilage green fodder and purify wastewater, in which they literally devour various organic residues.

Now scientists are planning to create light-sensitive bacteria and use them to produce biological cellulose.

We hope that the above information about bacteria has helped you. And you can leave your story about bacteria through the comment form.

And animals.

bacteria

Protozoa

Microorganisms can only be seen under a microscope. A colony of microorganisms often has a quite solid size, as well as traces of its vital activity. Such colonies have found their way into the fossil record.

Stromatolite

Sometimes these traces of vital activity can be likened to real monuments that outlive their creators. Some microorganisms form a special type of colonies in modern marine shallow waters in the form of a dense carpet about a centimeter thick - mat.

Chemo-synthesis

In the most ancient microbial communities, apparently, the energy of sunlight (as in photosynthesis) has not yet been used to build nutrients. Instead, they used the energy of chemical reactions ( chemosynthesis): absorbed methane, hydrogen sulfide or other simple substances rich in energy, and slowly "burned". Such microbial communities are now occasionally found in the ocean depths - where the gases of underwater volcanoes are released, and in. In earlier times, when our planet was younger, fuel for such “chemical fires” was still plentiful. But there is a better "fuel" that is always at hand - sunlight. Therefore, the organisms that learned to use it eventually gained an advantage and displaced the consumers of chemical fuel.

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Bacteria are present everywhere, absolutely everywhere, in every human body they are literally innumerable. But don't let this scare you - not all bacteria are pathogenic, most of them, on the contrary, are necessary for the normal functioning of not only humans, but also other living organisms.

  1. Scientists believe that there are more than a million species of bacteria in the world, although only about 10 thousand of them have been described and studied so far.
  2. Although the first bacterium was seen through a microscope in the second half of the 17th century, the term "bacterium" itself did not appear until 150 years later.
  3. The man who discovered the connection between bacteria and disease was Louis Pasteur in 1850. His research in the field of medicine was continued by Robert Koch, who became a Nobel laureate at the beginning of the 20th century for the study of tuberculosis pathogens.
  4. All the information necessary for the life of bacteria is stored in a single DNA - in an unfolded state, its length exceeds 1 mm.
  5. Bacteria can have from zero to a thousand flagella, with which they move in space.
  6. Bacteria are on average 0.5 to 5 micrometers in size.
  7. Bacteria are able to sink into a liquid and float to its surface, changing their density.
  8. They also know how to get energy through respiration, fermentation and photosynthesis.
  9. Bacteria originated on the planet about 4 billion years ago and were the first living creatures to inhabit the Earth.
  10. It was thanks to bacteria that oxygen began to accumulate in the Earth's atmosphere, reaching a concentration suitable for breathing over several billion years. The accumulation of oxygen was a boon for the planet, but a real disaster for bacterial species not adapted to such an environment. These organisms either died out en masse or moved to places with an anoxic environment.
  11. Bacteria not only cause diseases, but also participate in the formation of fertile soils, minerals, and the destruction of the bodies of dead animals and plants. Bacteria save oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
  12. It is some bacteria that cause such severe and deadly diseases as leprosy, plague, cholera, syphilis, anthrax, tuberculosis, and many others.
  13. Research has shown that bacteria are crucial in the formation of living organisms of any level of complexity.
  14. Bacteria are the most important participants in digestion, especially in herbivores.
  15. People a few thousand years ago began to use lactic acid bacteria to make yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese and other products.
  16. Bacteria that cause dangerous diseases can be used as weapons - however, this is prohibited by international conventions.
  17. With the help of bacteria, it is possible to purify soil and water contaminated with oil products.
  18. Every human body is inhabited by thousands of species of bacteria. At the initial stage of human life, they help in the formation of his immunity.
  19. Up to 2.5 kg of bacteria live in the human intestine, the number of cells of which significantly exceeds the number of cells in the human body.
  20. South Korean scientists have found that the most colonies of bacteria are found on the handles of shopping carts in supermarkets (1100 colonies per ten square centimeters). They are followed by computer mice in Internet cafes - on the door handles in public toilets, bacteria are half as much.

Bacteria started life on our planet. Scientists believe that everything will end with them. There is a joke that when aliens studied the Earth, they could not understand who its real owner is - a man or a bacillus. The most interesting facts about bacteria are selected below.

A bacterium is a separate organism that reproduces by division. The more favorable the habitat, the sooner it divides. These microorganisms live in all living things, as well as in water, food, rotten trees, and plants.

This list is not limited. Bacilli survive very well on objects that a person has touched. For example, on the handrail in public transport, on the handle of the refrigerator, on the tip of a pencil. Interesting facts about bacteria have recently been discovered from the University of Arizona. According to their observations, “sleeping” microorganisms live on Mars. Scientists are sure that this is one of the proofs of the existence of life on other planets, in addition, in their opinion, alien bacteria can be “revived” on Earth.

For the first time, a microorganism was examined in an optical microscope by the Dutch scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek at the end of the 17th century. Currently, there are about two thousand known species of bacilli. All of them can be conditionally divided into:

  • harmful;
  • useful;
  • neutral.

At the same time, harmful ones usually fight with useful and neutral ones. This is one of the most common reasons why a person gets sick.

The most curious facts

In general, unicellular organisms are involved in all life processes.

Bacteria and people

From birth, a person enters a world full of various microorganisms. Some help him survive, others cause infections and diseases.

The most curious interesting facts about bacteria and people:

It turns out that the bacillus can both completely cure a person and destroy our species. Bacterial toxins already exist.

How did bacteria help us survive?

Here are some more interesting facts about bacteria that benefit humans:

  • some types of bacilli protect a person from allergies;
  • bacteria can be used to dispose of hazardous waste (for example, petroleum products);
  • Without microorganisms in the gut, humans would not survive.

How to teach kids about bacilli?

Babies are ready to talk about bacilli as early as 3-4 years old. To correctly convey information, it is worth telling interesting facts about bacteria. For children, for example, it is very important to understand that there are evil and good microbes. That good people can turn milk into fermented baked milk. And also that they help the tummy to digest food.

Pay attention to the bad bacteria. Tell that they are very small, so they are not visible. That, getting into the human body, microbes quickly become numerous, and they begin to eat us from the inside.

The child should know that the evil microbe does not enter the body:

  • Wash your hands after the street and before eating.
  • Don't eat a lot of sweets.
  • Give vaccinations.

The best way to show bacteria is with pictures and encyclopedias.

What should every student know?

With an older child, it is better to talk not about microbes, but about bacteria. Interesting facts for schoolchildren are important to argue. That is, talking about the importance of washing hands, you can tell that 340 colonies of harmful bacilli live on toilet handles.

Together you can find information about which bacteria cause caries. And also tell the student that chocolate in a small amount has an antibacterial effect.

Even a primary school student will be able to understand what a vaccine is. This is when a small amount of a virus or bacteria is introduced into the body, and the immune system defeats them. That is why it is so important to get vaccinated.

Already from childhood, an understanding should come that the country of bacteria is a whole world that has not yet been fully studied. And as long as there are these microorganisms, there is the human species itself.



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