the-star-stuff:

Ten Things Bacteria Can Do That You Can’t

We humans like to think we’re pretty great. We have things like the Mona Lisa, and the Large Hadron Collider, and The Kind of Chocolate Sauce That Turns Solid When You Put It On Ice Cream. Still, it turns out that if aliens were to visit planet Earth and kidnap the dominant species, they’d go for bacteria over us any day. There are more of them, they’re more diverse, they’ve been around a lot longer, and between the lot of them, they’ve achieved a lot more. Have a look at ten things that bacteria do with their bare flagella that we could never manage to duplicate.

10. Live for 34,000 years.

In Death Valley, researchers found salt crystals that had tiny, fluid-filled pockets in them. In those pockets were 34,000-year-old bacteria. Not a species of bacteria that was 34,000 years old; an actual 34,000-year-old organism that had put itself in suspended animation for tens of thousands of years. And they didn’t look a day over thirty.

9. Be their own ecosystem.

In a goldmine in South Africa, there isn’t much room for life. There’s no sun, and no complex plants or animals providing nutrients to feed on. There is, however, a kind of bacteria. One kind of bacteria. It takes the heat of the mine and the water that fills the bottom and harvests everything it needs from the elements - literally. There is no life in the mine besides Desulforudis audaxviator, the world’s most self-sufficient organism.

8. Make gold nanoparticles.

Gold sprinkles the land, but in only a few places does it come in solid enough form that it’s worth collecting. And the main reason it does that is bacteria. Certain bacteria dissolve gold into nanoparticles, and those nanoparticles move freely through the soil until they collect in certain areas. Whenever a prospector strikes it rich, he or she should thank the humble bacteria. I’m guessing they don’t, though.

7. Glow in the dark.

Bacteria are the source of most bioluminescence in sea life. Some squid carry bacteria in their bodies that allow them to glow, and many bioluminescent fish have pouches of bacteria which manufacture the enzyme luciferase, which glows in the dark. And not just under black light. That’s cheating.

6. Be the world’s tiniest ninja.

Nanobacteria occupy only 20 nanometers. They’re somewhat controversial, since some scientists believe that such a small space can’t possibly hold the components necessary for life. And maybe that’s true. For these bacteria are not life - they are death! In the lab they tend to occupy dying mammalian cells. In real life, they’ve been linked to numerous health problems - but the link has never been certain. They are silent. They are untraceable. And they are deadly.

5. Live on Mars.

Oh, I’m not saying they do. I’m saying they could. Discoveries of colonies of live bacteria in liquid pockets in the dry valleys of Antarctica, they could definitely live somewhere below the surface of Mars.

4. Survive in boiling water.

Most of us are only comfortable in that tiny fraction of an inch that our shower knob that allows us to get the right temperature of water. If we so much as nudge the knob, or if someone in the room flushes the toilet, we jump out of the water, screaming. Not so with botulism bacteria. This deadly little number can survive boiling water. It’s only when the water is pressurized, so it boils at a higher temperature, that botulism dies off.

3. Modify their own genes.

Bacteria gain new abilities by swiping genes from other bacteria they encounter. If humans were able to do the same, it would be a little like being able to grow spots after petting a leopard. The process is called horizontal gene transfer, and it allows the bacteria to gain resistance to antibiotics.

2. Protect themselves from radioactivity and toxic environments

Some kinds of bacteria that live in radioactive areas have worked out ways of defending against taking in heavy metals. Not only is this of interest to biologists, but engineers are working out ways of using these bacteria to harvest heavy metals. Humans shrink from Uranium. Bacteria pick it up and use it as armor.

1. Digest your food.

Yes, you can’t even do that on your own. As thousands of yogurt commercials have no doubt told you, you need bacteria to help you. And while they’re down there, they do things like protect against other types of infection, regulate your immune system, and some, Lactobacillus andBifidobacterium, even fight elements that cause cancer. That’s right. The goop in your stomach fought cancer today. And what did you do?

Via The Huffington Post, Wired, Discovery, The Charlotte Observer, Wired, Science AGoGo,Making Your Own Beer, Current.com, Nanowerk, and The Naked Scientist.

rhamphotheca:

The Kreb’s Cycle aka the Citric Acid Cycle… you fucking perverts.

“a series of chemical reactions which is used by all aerobic living organisms to generate energy through the oxidization of acetate derived from carbohydrates, fats and proteins intocarbon dioxide and water…” (wikipedia)

glycolysisandall:

The image above shows an example of an amphiphile which is a term used to describe a chemical compound that contains both lipophilic (fat-loving) and hydrophilic (water-loving) properties.

A common and important class of amphiphillic molecules include phospholipids, which are the main component of cell membranes. The amphiphillic nature of these molecules actually defines the way in which the cell membrane is arranged. The arrangement of polar hydrophilic groups on the outside, so as to interact with the aqueous environment and non-polar lipophilic groups on the inside, away from the aqueous environment, hence forms the basis of the bilayer. 

misstagiart:

so guess who had to help her sister with a biology assignment!

(Source: cherryblossomcolorseason)

freshphotons:

The Inner Cell, MRK.

The rough endoplasmic reticulum is the place to be. Check out all those ribosomes.

freshphotons:

Ribbon schematic of Triosephosphate isomerase, hand-drawn by Jane Richardson.

neurolove:

Micrograph of neurons in rat neocortex stained with a dye.  These neurons will randomly connect to each other at the presentation of a stimulus and then prune out the weaker connections to set up a working circuit that will activate to the stimulus in the future.  A great example of learning at the circuit level in the brain.  Neurons are constantly forming new connections and pruning out the weaker ones to be able to more efficiently send messages along and encode new things.  This is a case where more is not better- efficiency relies on having the right number, which is why the strongest connections are maintained and the weaker ones destroyed.  If connections are not used for a long time, they can become weaker and this is why abilities or facts that you used to know really well can be lost.  For instance, for classes you’ll memorize something- say, the periodic table- but not use it again for a long time and the memory will become fuzzy or lost (yeah, I can’t recall all the elements anymore).  Note: “muscle memory” is different, which is the root of the always knowing how to ride a bike saying.

[Image Source]

freshphotons:

shiggetywhat:

Human spinal nerve. Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of section through a human spinal nerve. The nerve is composed of numerous bundles of myelinated axons. In the centre is a blood vessel filled with red blood cells. The human body contains 31 paired spinal nerves. These branch from the main spinal cord and pass out of the vertebrae to carry information to the rest of the body.