Welcome to the microscopic world
What are microbes?
Microbes are all organisms that are only visible using a microscope.
Among them are archaebacteria, true bacteria, protozoa, fungi, and viruses. Microbes are small, but they are also the most diverse and abundant beings on the planet. Only in our mouth there are more bacteria than people in the world and experts do not agree on how many different species there may be.
Archaebacteria
They are unicellular organisms lacking a nucleus. They are very similar to bacteria but due to their very particular characteristics, from the 70's they were considered as just another form of life on Earth, different from bacteria or other living beings that we know.
Microorganisms inhabit all the places we can imagine
Even in the most inhospitable places such as ocean depths, hydrothermal vents or in extreme conditions of acidity or salinity. We can even find them in the highest layers of the atmosphere and at great depths in the earth's crust.
Tiny but indispensable for life
These tiny beings play a key role in maintaining life on our planet. For example, they capture carbon dioxide and nitrogen from the environment and transform it into organic matter, decompose the matter of dead organisms into simpler substances that serve as food for photosynthetic organisms, starting the food chain that supports our existence. In addition, the oxygen atmosphere that makes our existence possible and that of many other organisms, originated thanks to the activity of photosynthetic bacteria more than 2 billion years ago.
Our relationship with microorganisms
We tend to always associate them with diseases, but less than 1% of the total number of microbial species on the planet is capable of making human beings sick. The rest are not only not harmful to us, but many of them give us benefits.
Only our body is made up of more microbial cells than human cells, and far from being a threat they make up our microbiota, which performs functions without which our survival would be impossible. For example, they participate in the digestion of food, promote the development of our immune system, and fight pathogenic bacteria.
Microorganisms in the day to day
Humans take advantage of the great capacities of microbes to obtain various products such as food (bread, cheese, yogurt), beverages (wine, beer), food supplements (vitamins, amino acids), drugs (antibiotics), solvents (ethanol, acetone, butanol ), enzymes for multiple uses, among others.
Food and drinks
They are essential in the production of many foods and beverages, such as wine, beer, baked goods, dairy products, among others. In many of these products, microorganisms do their job during the production process, but they are not present as living cells in the food product.
The future for sustainable agriculture
Beneficial microbes are increasingly used in agriculture as biopesticides, rather than using chemicals, and as biofertilizers to make nutrients more available to plants.
A protection for the planet
Microorganisms also work in caring for the environment by fixing the environmental disasters that we cause, thanks to their ability to degrade toxic substances. Some of them are used to decontaminate soils and bodies of water. This process is known as bioremediation and has been used to clean up oil spills and to treat wastewater.
Microorganisms, the tool of the future
Our present and our future depend on microorganisms. They are our allies in tackling complex problems, for which over the billions of years they have been on the planet, they have developed mechanisms that we can take advantage of to propose solutions.
With the increasing increase in population density and the consequent increase in the demand for food and waste generation, microorganisms are our allies.
Tomorrow's food
For the future it is expected that an important part of the food will not come from animals or plants, but from microorganisms. This technology is still in its early stages, but scientists are already developing food from water and microorganisms. This is expected to help produce large amounts of food in small areas.
The light of microorganisms
There is also the possibility that bioluminescent microorganisms become energy sources that generate light, and in the future illuminate the streets of our cities.
On search for a bacterium that would solve a big problem
The discovery of a bacterium capable of degrading PET, in the future, together with recycling, could be used to address the problem of environmental pollution from the waste of these plastics, one of the most used and which takes around 1000 years to degrade. .
Modifying microorganisms
Microorganisms can be genetically modified to produce certain drugs that we could consume as biocapsules for the treatment of some diseases.