Microbes, mainly bacteria, make up 90% of the cells in our bodies, and about 10% of our body weight. Most of these, good and bad, are in our guts and on our skin.
Most microbes are vital for survival, like aiding our digestive system, while a small amount cause infections and diseases, but our immune system usually keeps them in place, but even our immune system needs help sometimes. Bacteria are able to cause disease when they are allowed to reproduce in the body, and produce toxins, which damage tissues and organs.
So, how do antibiotics work? In the video I watched to gain information, the man said that just like a man doing kung-fu, bacterium also can defeat each other with special moves.
They produce antibiotics.
These antibiotics are a type of compound that kill other microbes and allow the attackers to take all of the food for themselves.
Antibiotics were discovered by Alexander Flemming.
He was examining some mold that grew near one of his tests. It contained disease causing bacteria, but it killed them all.
The use of antibiotics completely revolutionized how people treated diseases that were previously untreatable.
The bad news is that Microbes can become resistant to antibiotics, and bacteria can evolve, if you will to keep antibiotics from damaging them. (So there IS a catch!)
The rest of the bacteria will succumb to the antibiotics, but the one species of bacteria that has become resistant to the antibiotics will continue to grow, and bacteria reproduce at an alarmingly high rate.
To this day, scientists are looking for a new antibiotic that can kill this superbug.
Friday, 9 November 2012
Friday, 2 November 2012
Beer!
Microbes have been responsible for some of the worlds most devastating diseases, but at the same time, these unicellular organisms have aided our survival on earth. Though we didn't know, microbes have been being put to work for thousands of years, and especially in ancient Egypt, where they created one of the worlds most popular beverages.
Beer.
Today, making beer is a multi million dollar industry. More than two billion people each year will drink 133,000,000 litres of beer.
Yet, if it wasn't for microbes, there wouldn't be any beer.
Beer is a very ancient drink, in fact, scientists believe that it began to be produced at about 6,000 BC.
We can find evidence of this in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Egyptians took their beer extremely seriously.
Some of the hieroglyphs show that they even gave names to beer like Joeybringer', 'Heavenly', to their beer. They also loved wine.
Some scientists believe that the Egyptians came over this beverage when a piece of leavened bread containing yeast fell into a vat of soaking grain.
Egyptian beer, however was extremely different to the beer that we know today. It contained about 50% alcohol, so it was very strong, but the taste was quite unpleasant. Scientists believe that the Egyptians enjoyed the drunkenness more than the beverage itself.
In the 1800's, scientists were able to recreate the beer form ancient Egypt, and the taste was bad because it contained very alien ingredients (in terms of a beer) such as hops and honey.
In some tomb paintings, Egyptians were seen drinking their beer from ceramic pots with a sort of straw, which filtered the solid parts from the actual liquid itself.
So, how do you make the best beer?
Well, different types of yeast, that have different needs, such as heat, produce different types of beer.
Lager, for example, needs lower temperatures to ferment, and ferments more slowly, thus the high price.
Ale, on the other hand, prefers higher temperatures and grows quite quickly. You can change the taste by adding different types of malt, grain and hops, or even dried fruits and spices.
But even after all that, its all coming down to the yeast microbes.
Beer.
Today, making beer is a multi million dollar industry. More than two billion people each year will drink 133,000,000 litres of beer.
Yet, if it wasn't for microbes, there wouldn't be any beer.
Beer is a very ancient drink, in fact, scientists believe that it began to be produced at about 6,000 BC.
We can find evidence of this in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, and the Egyptians took their beer extremely seriously.
Some of the hieroglyphs show that they even gave names to beer like Joeybringer', 'Heavenly', to their beer. They also loved wine.
Some scientists believe that the Egyptians came over this beverage when a piece of leavened bread containing yeast fell into a vat of soaking grain.
Egyptian beer, however was extremely different to the beer that we know today. It contained about 50% alcohol, so it was very strong, but the taste was quite unpleasant. Scientists believe that the Egyptians enjoyed the drunkenness more than the beverage itself.
In the 1800's, scientists were able to recreate the beer form ancient Egypt, and the taste was bad because it contained very alien ingredients (in terms of a beer) such as hops and honey.
In some tomb paintings, Egyptians were seen drinking their beer from ceramic pots with a sort of straw, which filtered the solid parts from the actual liquid itself.
So, how do you make the best beer?
Well, different types of yeast, that have different needs, such as heat, produce different types of beer.
Lager, for example, needs lower temperatures to ferment, and ferments more slowly, thus the high price.
Ale, on the other hand, prefers higher temperatures and grows quite quickly. You can change the taste by adding different types of malt, grain and hops, or even dried fruits and spices.
But even after all that, its all coming down to the yeast microbes.
Bubonic Plague's Relation to Microbes
Hello Everyone...
And welcome to my first blog post about Microbes! For those of you who are just browsing around, I am doing a school project for my Specialist Sciences class in chemistry. I will start with something interesting and gross...
But first, what are Microbes?
Microbes are micro organisms, especially bacteria that causes disease and fermentation.
Now for the gross stuff...
What did microbes have to do with the notorious 'Black Death'?
Alright, so we all know that many microbes cause diseases, but none more so than the Bubonic Plague, or the Black Death.
Black Death is spread by the microbe yersinia pestis, invading and growing inside the bodies of rats, fleas, cats dogs, farm animals and humans. It thrives at around 37 degrees Celsius, the exact temperature of a healthy human body.
The way that Black Death worked was rather... gruesome. The microbe divided inside of the flea and causes a blockage inside of it, causing the flea to get hungry. The starving flea goes to find a human for a drink of blood, and regurgitates some of the disease back into the human bloodstream. Inside of the human bloodstream, the bacterium is found by the immune system, which launches white blood cells to kill the virus, but instead of the virus dying, it continues to multiply inside of the white blood cell. Eventually, the blood cell dies, and yersinia pestis floods out stronger than before. More blood cells try to kill the virus, but the disease is powerful enough to paralyze the blood cells.
It started off with a cough and a sneeze, much like a common cold or flu, but then you start to notice large and sometimes black lesions on the skin called buboes, and in fact, hence the name Black Death. These buboes appear in your joints, genitals, under your arms... and it's excruciatingly painful. You are forced into bed, and the buboes get larger and start leaking out pus from inside them, and you die a slow and painful death. In just four years, from 1347 to 1351, the plague killed more than 71 million people internationally.
And welcome to my first blog post about Microbes! For those of you who are just browsing around, I am doing a school project for my Specialist Sciences class in chemistry. I will start with something interesting and gross...
But first, what are Microbes?
Microbes are micro organisms, especially bacteria that causes disease and fermentation.
Now for the gross stuff...
What did microbes have to do with the notorious 'Black Death'?
Alright, so we all know that many microbes cause diseases, but none more so than the Bubonic Plague, or the Black Death.
Black Death is spread by the microbe yersinia pestis, invading and growing inside the bodies of rats, fleas, cats dogs, farm animals and humans. It thrives at around 37 degrees Celsius, the exact temperature of a healthy human body.
The way that Black Death worked was rather... gruesome. The microbe divided inside of the flea and causes a blockage inside of it, causing the flea to get hungry. The starving flea goes to find a human for a drink of blood, and regurgitates some of the disease back into the human bloodstream. Inside of the human bloodstream, the bacterium is found by the immune system, which launches white blood cells to kill the virus, but instead of the virus dying, it continues to multiply inside of the white blood cell. Eventually, the blood cell dies, and yersinia pestis floods out stronger than before. More blood cells try to kill the virus, but the disease is powerful enough to paralyze the blood cells.
It started off with a cough and a sneeze, much like a common cold or flu, but then you start to notice large and sometimes black lesions on the skin called buboes, and in fact, hence the name Black Death. These buboes appear in your joints, genitals, under your arms... and it's excruciatingly painful. You are forced into bed, and the buboes get larger and start leaking out pus from inside them, and you die a slow and painful death. In just four years, from 1347 to 1351, the plague killed more than 71 million people internationally.
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