Marvellous Microbes
and where to find them
What are Microbes?
- What is the smallest living
thing you can think of?
What are Microbes?
What are Microbes?
- Microbes are tiny living life forms.
- They are so small we can only see them
using microscopes.
How big are Microbes?
Yeast
Yeast are used for many
puposes, including:
-Bread and cake making
-Wine and beer production
-Production of biofuels
-And very recently they
have been used to make
medicines
Yeast
Today we are going to
investigate what they eat.
What do Scientists do?
-
I am a microbiologist
-
I work at the University of
Nottingham
-
I try and make useful chemicals
by using microbes and DNA from
other living things
What do Scientists do?
-
-
They design and carry out
experiments to better
understand the world around us.
Scientists have to work:
Carefully
Considerately
Logically
- They have to make their test fair.
E. Coli
Lactobacillus
V. fisheri
H. volcanii
Algae
Rhizopus
What is different between
microbes and animals?
What do Microbes do?
-We use yeast to make
bread and wine
-Lactobacillus help to turn
milk into yougurt
- Penicillium Roqueforti is
used to make blue cheese.
What do Microbes do?
-Microbes are also useful in nature
-Fungi recycle dead plant and animal
material on the forest floor
- Certain bacteria live in the roots
of plants and help make fertiliser
- They can even help fish and other
sea creatures see each other.
What do Microbes do?
-We are now trying to get
microbes to do new jobs for us.
-Like:
-Producing fuels
-Making useful chemicals
-breaking down material
-Killing bad microbes
Classification
Where can we find
Microbes?
- Everywhere!
- Microbes make up the majority of all life on
earth.
- The things they do help to keep other living
things alive.
Some fun facts
-There are 10 times more bacteria in the average human’s digestive system than
there are cells in the entire body. This is approximately 1kg of bacteria.
- Microbes generate at least half the oxygen we breathe.
- There are more microbes on one person’s hand than there are people on the
planet.
- Cattle belching and farting produce about 20% of the Earth’s methane (Gas
fuel).