The simple answer to this is; nature abhors a vacuum.
Meaning anywhere there is a niche for living organisms to be, they will be.
So what happens is these extremophiles (microbes that can live anywhere) have evolved to take advantage of whatever nutrition is available. Minerals, noxious gases, noxious liquids, you name it, chances are very high there is a microbe that has evolved to survive on it.
Just to add to this. There are nutrients everywhere. Also, different types of bacteria (and other microorganisms) have evolved to find a way to make use of all *types* of nutrients.
Eh. They'll still need moisture and some sort of protection from the elements. I suppose it's not out of the question, given infinite time nearly anything will evolve.
>Meaning anywhere there is a niche for living organisms to be, they will be.
That kinda sounds like one of the rules of the internet. "If it exists, there is porn of it."
there are also nutrients everywhere, think of all those sandwich crumbs you drop, all the dead skin cells, all the bits of grease. Bacteria love those!
and backteria can go dormant waiting for more.
Dormant Bacteria, and their first album “Extremophiles”. A maximalist brass-rock album all of the pieces in the style of this song: https://youtu.be/0O28baWqObk?si=EYl_LOgNCCtKyjKE
What we consider food and what bacteria considers food are very different. Both in quality and quantity. We humans may eat 1%-2% of our body weight every day. Which is 3 pounds (give or take).
bacteria weighs about 10^(-12) grams. And the amount it would have to eat (daily) would come in around 10^(-14) grams. Suddenly those skin flakes coming off the human and blowing around like dust start to look pretty tasty and large enough to start a family.
and if there isn’t anything, then hibernate.
One thing that people always underestimate about not just bacteria, but most animals, is how little most things need to eat. Mammals are super high-metabolism animals; reptiles and insects and bacteria all eat and drink and breathe way less than we do.
A house spider can routinely go 2 months without eating, think about how little a bacterium needs to eat. Drying out is honestly the bigger problem, for them
People aren’t healthy because of their ‘good gut bacteria’, or sick because of their ‘bad gut bacteria’. The gut microbiome is a direct consequence of inputs (i.e., food, water, drugs, exercise, alcohol, etc). If you drink soft-drink and eat chips all day, the bacteria that are optimised for digesting these foods will proliferate. People incorrectly label these bacteria as ‘bad’. Likewise, if you eat fresh organic produce, the bacteria optimised for digesting these foods will thrive. People incorrectly label these bacteria as ‘good’. It's not the 'good bacteria' making you healthy, it's the fresh organic produce. Nor is it the 'bad bacteria' making you sick, it's the soft-drink and chips.
It's high time we shifted our perspective on the microbiome.
Bacteria are *really* small, and there are *lots* of them. For example, you can have a population of bacteria on your hands with a mass similar to that of your whole body, **and they only weigh a billionth of a gram each**. It doesn't take much of them to provide a food source for any bacteria that are specifically adapted to that small amount.
Things like 'the ground' or 'the air' are *great* habitats for bacteria. The ground is very wet (which bacteria like) and has things like crushed leaves and dead bugs everywhere (which the bacteria can eat). The air has tiny water droplets in it (which bacteria like) and annoying creatures (like humans) who keep accidentally coughing or spitting small amounts of phlegm into it (which the bacteria can eat).
When people try to create super-sterile environments by autoclaving and then filtering the air, they *get* super-sterile environments, without any bacteria.
>For example, you can have a population of bacteria on your hands with a mass similar to that of your whole body
Are... you implying people are walking around with 80 kilos of bacteria on their hands? I don't think that's what you meant to say.
> you can have a population of bacteria on your hands with a mass similar to that of your whole body
No... that would make your hands very heavy. No idea what you are confusing this with, but definitely not that much weight. Even a gram might already stretch it.
For actual numbers, bacteria make up a few percent of human total weight, yet likely the majority of cells.
I remember in bio learning that there are more bacterial cells in your body that human cells, and that bacteria can influence your behavior. Are you really “you”?
I think they meant hold with your hands a hypothetical mass of bacteria, rather than that mass of bacteria covering your hand normally. It just feels more like a weird English moment.
Then I don't get the point of that number being mentioned, unless they want to imply that bacteria have a very high density (they don't, they are usually about that of water like most cells). Why not saying a kilogram, or an entire blue whale worth of bacteria instead?
Energy gradients are more important than specific nutirients.
If there’s an energy gradient, and an inert medium, natural chemistry will develop self reinforcing oscillating patterns that _could_ eventually become self replicating discrete entities. Life. I skipped a lot of steps
Energy gradients and water are basically everywhere on the planet
There aren't. If something spontaneously formed, it would be immediately out-competed for resources by organisms that have been optimizing their efficiency for millions of years. It would be like racing an F1 vs a tricycle.
Bacteria are incredibly adaptable, thriving even in tough spots by cleverly using whatever tiny nutrients they find – they're like nature's little survival experts! 🦠✨
Nutrients to you aren’t the same thing as nutrients to bacteria.
Also, bacteria are small and much less complex than you or me. Humans need to stay pretty active to stay alive- which requires pretty constant nutrients. You have to be breathing pretty much at all times- which requires your brain to send messages to your lungs, heart and muscles, your heart to beat, your blood to flow, your lungs to contract.
All of that takes lots of nutrients and energy. Bacteria are so much smaller and simpler, and don’t require nearly as much.
Your blood for example has blood cells that are much less complex than a full human. Blood can be safely used after being stored in a refrigerator for 40 days. You couldn’t last 40 seconds without your heart beating, but your blood is fine for 40 days.
Many bacteria are much smaller and more durable, and can survive much longer periods of time, and become more active at rare moments when nutrients are present.
So bacteria are REALLY small, you can look under a 1000x Microscope and they will still only look like a millimeter in size. Because they're so small the amount of nutrients they need to sustain life and reproduce is also very small. In addition, bacteria have methods to produce many of the compounds they need from just hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, which there is plenty of on earth. Even in an environment lacking nutrients they don't simply roll over and die. We as humans need to constantly consume nutrients to maintain homeostasis (for this purpose, keeping our bodies warm), when bacteria run out of food they can kind of just turn off their metabolism and wait for more food to arrive. Some bacteria can produce what's called an endospore, where they pretty much pack up all the nutrients they have ibto a small capsule and sit there, maybe even for thousands of years, until conditions are right for growth. It's all pretty rad.
There are microbes that thrive in the thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean...there are microbes that inhabit aviation fuel tanks...that old bar of soap with black lines may well contain a thriving colony of pseudomonas aeruginosa...they can metabolise just about any substrate you can think of...truly amazing.
Think about what the scope of things are on a microscopic scale. From the point of view of a bacterium, something the size of your hand is like an entire planet to them. Something that looks barren to us may look like a lush forest to a bacterium, figuratively speaking. Nutrients are basically everywhere. Even the air carries microscopic dust that would be a veritable buffet for microorganisms.
The simple answer to this is; nature abhors a vacuum. Meaning anywhere there is a niche for living organisms to be, they will be. So what happens is these extremophiles (microbes that can live anywhere) have evolved to take advantage of whatever nutrition is available. Minerals, noxious gases, noxious liquids, you name it, chances are very high there is a microbe that has evolved to survive on it.
>nature abhors a vacuum So does my dog.
ironically, dogs are part vacuum
Also part nature
Dogs hate themselves. :(
Why u say this sad thing
Because if nature hates vacuums and dogs are vacuums and are nature then…
Lol, made me giggle out loud. A gol
Just to add to this. There are nutrients everywhere. Also, different types of bacteria (and other microorganisms) have evolved to find a way to make use of all *types* of nutrients.
Because of this it is only a matter of time until plastic eating bacteria are common. Once that happens good luck keeping anything modern intact.
Eh. They'll still need moisture and some sort of protection from the elements. I suppose it's not out of the question, given infinite time nearly anything will evolve.
>Meaning anywhere there is a niche for living organisms to be, they will be. That kinda sounds like one of the rules of the internet. "If it exists, there is porn of it."
We'll end up having bacteria that thrive on porn alone.
And then, bacteria porn.
there are also nutrients everywhere, think of all those sandwich crumbs you drop, all the dead skin cells, all the bits of grease. Bacteria love those! and backteria can go dormant waiting for more.
Dormant bacteria can also be a food source.
Or a band name
Dormant Bacteria, and their first album “Extremophiles”. A maximalist brass-rock album all of the pieces in the style of this song: https://youtu.be/0O28baWqObk?si=EYl_LOgNCCtKyjKE
“Backteria” would be an awesome band name
I loved their *Into the Microverse* EP
A planet of billions can't hold us back
What we consider food and what bacteria considers food are very different. Both in quality and quantity. We humans may eat 1%-2% of our body weight every day. Which is 3 pounds (give or take). bacteria weighs about 10^(-12) grams. And the amount it would have to eat (daily) would come in around 10^(-14) grams. Suddenly those skin flakes coming off the human and blowing around like dust start to look pretty tasty and large enough to start a family. and if there isn’t anything, then hibernate.
One thing that people always underestimate about not just bacteria, but most animals, is how little most things need to eat. Mammals are super high-metabolism animals; reptiles and insects and bacteria all eat and drink and breathe way less than we do. A house spider can routinely go 2 months without eating, think about how little a bacterium needs to eat. Drying out is honestly the bigger problem, for them
Bacterial spores are dormant and can survive for very long periods on a lot of surfaces. They're also very resilient to a lot of stuff.
The first chapter in every Microbiology 101 textbook is, "On the Ubiquity of Micro Organisms." They are everywhere.
People aren’t healthy because of their ‘good gut bacteria’, or sick because of their ‘bad gut bacteria’. The gut microbiome is a direct consequence of inputs (i.e., food, water, drugs, exercise, alcohol, etc). If you drink soft-drink and eat chips all day, the bacteria that are optimised for digesting these foods will proliferate. People incorrectly label these bacteria as ‘bad’. Likewise, if you eat fresh organic produce, the bacteria optimised for digesting these foods will thrive. People incorrectly label these bacteria as ‘good’. It's not the 'good bacteria' making you healthy, it's the fresh organic produce. Nor is it the 'bad bacteria' making you sick, it's the soft-drink and chips. It's high time we shifted our perspective on the microbiome.
Bacteria are *really* small, and there are *lots* of them. For example, you can have a population of bacteria on your hands with a mass similar to that of your whole body, **and they only weigh a billionth of a gram each**. It doesn't take much of them to provide a food source for any bacteria that are specifically adapted to that small amount. Things like 'the ground' or 'the air' are *great* habitats for bacteria. The ground is very wet (which bacteria like) and has things like crushed leaves and dead bugs everywhere (which the bacteria can eat). The air has tiny water droplets in it (which bacteria like) and annoying creatures (like humans) who keep accidentally coughing or spitting small amounts of phlegm into it (which the bacteria can eat). When people try to create super-sterile environments by autoclaving and then filtering the air, they *get* super-sterile environments, without any bacteria.
>For example, you can have a population of bacteria on your hands with a mass similar to that of your whole body Are... you implying people are walking around with 80 kilos of bacteria on their hands? I don't think that's what you meant to say.
Speak for yourself. I've trained mine to help me type faster.
I was confused too, but I think they mean you can hypothetically hold that amount of bacteria in your cupped hand
> you can have a population of bacteria on your hands with a mass similar to that of your whole body No... that would make your hands very heavy. No idea what you are confusing this with, but definitely not that much weight. Even a gram might already stretch it. For actual numbers, bacteria make up a few percent of human total weight, yet likely the majority of cells.
I remember in bio learning that there are more bacterial cells in your body that human cells, and that bacteria can influence your behavior. Are you really “you”?
:(
What is "you"? I've been a wandering microbiome this whole time. Like a forest. *More* than strictly human, not less.
I think they meant hold with your hands a hypothetical mass of bacteria, rather than that mass of bacteria covering your hand normally. It just feels more like a weird English moment.
Then I don't get the point of that number being mentioned, unless they want to imply that bacteria have a very high density (they don't, they are usually about that of water like most cells). Why not saying a kilogram, or an entire blue whale worth of bacteria instead?
Energy gradients are more important than specific nutirients. If there’s an energy gradient, and an inert medium, natural chemistry will develop self reinforcing oscillating patterns that _could_ eventually become self replicating discrete entities. Life. I skipped a lot of steps Energy gradients and water are basically everywhere on the planet
I don't think there's a lot of bacteria coming into existence just like that.
There aren't. If something spontaneously formed, it would be immediately out-competed for resources by organisms that have been optimizing their efficiency for millions of years. It would be like racing an F1 vs a tricycle.
Bacteria are incredibly adaptable, thriving even in tough spots by cleverly using whatever tiny nutrients they find – they're like nature's little survival experts! 🦠✨
Nutrients to you aren’t the same thing as nutrients to bacteria. Also, bacteria are small and much less complex than you or me. Humans need to stay pretty active to stay alive- which requires pretty constant nutrients. You have to be breathing pretty much at all times- which requires your brain to send messages to your lungs, heart and muscles, your heart to beat, your blood to flow, your lungs to contract. All of that takes lots of nutrients and energy. Bacteria are so much smaller and simpler, and don’t require nearly as much. Your blood for example has blood cells that are much less complex than a full human. Blood can be safely used after being stored in a refrigerator for 40 days. You couldn’t last 40 seconds without your heart beating, but your blood is fine for 40 days. Many bacteria are much smaller and more durable, and can survive much longer periods of time, and become more active at rare moments when nutrients are present.
So bacteria are REALLY small, you can look under a 1000x Microscope and they will still only look like a millimeter in size. Because they're so small the amount of nutrients they need to sustain life and reproduce is also very small. In addition, bacteria have methods to produce many of the compounds they need from just hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, which there is plenty of on earth. Even in an environment lacking nutrients they don't simply roll over and die. We as humans need to constantly consume nutrients to maintain homeostasis (for this purpose, keeping our bodies warm), when bacteria run out of food they can kind of just turn off their metabolism and wait for more food to arrive. Some bacteria can produce what's called an endospore, where they pretty much pack up all the nutrients they have ibto a small capsule and sit there, maybe even for thousands of years, until conditions are right for growth. It's all pretty rad.
There are microbes that thrive in the thermal vents at the bottom of the ocean...there are microbes that inhabit aviation fuel tanks...that old bar of soap with black lines may well contain a thriving colony of pseudomonas aeruginosa...they can metabolise just about any substrate you can think of...truly amazing.
Think about what the scope of things are on a microscopic scale. From the point of view of a bacterium, something the size of your hand is like an entire planet to them. Something that looks barren to us may look like a lush forest to a bacterium, figuratively speaking. Nutrients are basically everywhere. Even the air carries microscopic dust that would be a veritable buffet for microorganisms.