Bacteria are small microbes found in various environments, including the human body, soil, and extreme locations like hot springs and Antarctica. They can be good or bad and help break down organic debris, create rich soil, and convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutrients for plants. Bacteria can also be used for bioremediation.
Bacteria are microbes, typically 0.0000196 to 0.00019 inches (0.5 to 5.0 micrometers) long, that can be found in large numbers in any part of the environment, from at least 2 miles (3.2 km) underground to 7 miles (11.2 km) underground. above the earth’s surface. They colonize areas uninhabitable for most other life forms, including the Yellowstone Hot Springs and McMurdo Dry Valleys in Antarctica.
Humans also have huge numbers of bacteria in and on their bodies. It is estimated that there are about ten bacteria for every cell in the human body, for a total of about 1 quadrillion (1015) microbes, distributed between 500 and 100,000 species. The vast majority live in the large intestine, although they can be found throughout the body. Some of the bacteria in the body are good, like Lactobacillus, which converts milk protein into lactic acid in the intestines, and some are bad, like those responsible for tooth decay and stomach ulcers.
The bacteria are found in fertile soil in huge numbers: 100 million to 3 billion per 0.035 ounce (1 gram) of soil, sometimes with up to a million species in that small sample. Although a typical soil sample is dominated by a few species, there are large numbers of them present but in low abundance. They help other organisms break down organic debris, creating rich soil. In particular, bacteria are the only form of life capable of converting atmospheric nitrogen into fixed (solid) nitrogen, in the form of nitrates which are then used by plants as nutrients.
If organic material or even, in some cases, reduced inorganic compounds is present, the bacteria, in collaboration with other microorganisms, will likely find a way to digest it. There are species that eat away at pieces of tire by the side of the road, dissolve Alzheimer’s plaques in dead bodies, and even consume TNT or sulfate minerals. The use of bacteria or other microbes to break down toxic chemicals is called bioremediation.
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