Bacteria - crazy little critters!
It is so cool how bacteria live symbiotically with us and other organisms. They are responsible for doing so much--manufacturing vitamin K in our gut for us and putting the sour in San Francisco sourdough. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and they are one of the oldest organisms on the planet and they live in all corners of the world. They can also cause a lot of harm to humans if they get out of control. This article talks a little about the development of antibiotics and how it revolutionized medicine. People must have been truly amazed at the power when antibiotics first became available. It is interesting that antibiotics often work by targeting the ribosomes of bacteria which are slightly differentn from eukaryotic (as in human) ribosomes. In that way the bacteria is killed iwthout damaging the eukaryotic cell. Pretty neat.
Also super cool are the archeans--"tiny prokaryotic organisms that live only in extreme environments: boiling water, super-salty pools, sulfur-spewing volcanic vents, acidic water, and deep in the Antarctic ice." They live only in the harshest of neighborhoods. The article does not elaborate on archeans.
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