Microbes and the end of the world

Scientists think that around 240 million years ago Microbes killed almost every living thing on God’s green earth, so who’s to say that today in our modern time that microbes might have the same plan for us. Sure we have, technology but how could this help us against a type of pathogen that has it out for human kind. In my children’s book i wrote about a type of apocalyptic future when archea decided that humans were unfit to live in the World that they engineered and eventually they killed us all. Honestly these scientists might have all the right ideas in mind. We are raping this planet and it is only a matter of time until mother nature decides enough is enough. I hope me and my children are never around to see it but I think the inevitable is already upon us.

This argument uses pathos to reach to the Heart of the reader. And logos because these studies are based off of scientific fact. It’s beautiful really, but this maybe our harsh reality is to much to bear so we should continue to live our. 

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/8526/20140401/mit-researchers-believe-microbes-caused-the-earths-mass-extinction-252-million-years-ago.htm

Microbes and Our Minds

Normally we look at ourselves and see only one living thing, but in reality we are home to billions of tiny little organisms. All of these unnoticed organisms make up what scientists call the human microbiome, and the DNA of these organisms out number our DNA one to one hundred. For most people this could be a tad frightening but our microbiome actually keeps us healthy, and without them we would be giving ourselves an utter death sentence. We understand that as we develop of brains growing up we are influenced by the microbes given to us, but now scientists are starting to wonder if microbes in our bodies influence our minds and adults. There are actually a number of Scientists and doctors who have conducting very interesting experiments on the topic. Dr. Emeran Meyer claims that he has made the connection between gut microbes and brain functions. This would open a whole new realm of medicine that would harness the power of microbes to treat psychological diseases. Meyer took a total of 60 patients and introduced them all with different types of probiotics and antibiotics then performed MRI scans to detect certain brain patterns. The results were very clear, people with certain gut microbes had brain connections that people without the microbes did not. This then leaves the question how does the brain communicate with microbes in our gut.  Stephen Collins of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, performed an experiment on mice where he took the gut microbes of fearless mice and gave them to mice with anxiety. Results showed that the anxious mice began to be less anxious and be more gregarious. The vagus nerve was Collins first clue to how the brain communicates with the gut, this nerve is in all spines, and when he severed this nerve in the mice the brain stopped responding to the additional microbes added to the gut.

Microbes of the Plasticsphere

In our world of consumerism we generate a lot of garbage, we have littered our ecosystems with plastic and now we are seeing the affects. The oceans are filled with trash and a large amount of this trash has formed the Pacific garbage patch. This garbage hell covers the same amount of area as the state of Texas. Scientists are constantly studying this area trying to figure out what role this “plasticsphere” is playing in our ecosystem.  Discoveries made last year show that 1000 different microbes live on the  plastic garbage floating in the ocean. The majority of the microbes found were members of the genus Vibro which is known to cause disease in humans and animals. The astonishing part is that scientists have no idea how those microbes got there or if we’re affecting the oceans ecology. The researchers also found that the most harmful bacteria like to live on plastic compared to neutral bacteria. Scientists now want to see what happens when fish ingest these microbes. A few things could happen in this case, the fish could become sick and die, or the bacteria would thrive off of the nutrients inside of the fishes gut. Both cases seem rather scary, unfortunately there seems to be no happy ending to this garbage story. Work like this is helping us prepare for the future disaster of out ecosystems.  We are creating a breeding ground for some of the worst biological weapons, but we are not fighting against man, we are fighting against nature, which should frighten you much much more.

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE9fcgmwBfqzXmX7_DZA1dPiQDwtAM6BRhAzEqClZLgijxAuos75Q556LyWXOsboIhZjK8c1ec2QLoTt-kbbl3Zq6wW3HkHJtdrSqOzoilwlO4QbTWsampEKvn5SSkr8zN8kD9yGA5JDE2/s1600/3428530550_5d68278345.jpg

 Article---- http://www.livescience.com/43650-ocean-plastic-houses-microbes.html

The Air is not that Gross

We all know that microbes practically live everywhere, and some of us occasionally wonder about the microbes we breathe in found in the atmosphere. Humans are naturally curious and with the surge of technology we are better able to answer our questions. In the past we thought that the air was rather clean, well microbe free for the most part. We couldn’t have been more wrong, recent discoveries and studies show that the air above our cities and blowing in from our coast is teaming with microbial organisms, and some of which are capable of some serious damage if not detected beforehand. The argument in the article I’m blogging about tonight is trying to persuade the reader to understand that, yes there are microbes in the air, and yes some of the microbes are dangerous and some microbes might be evidence of a bioattack, but we sure generally not be worried because there are far more microbes in the environment around us then just in the air.

 http://www.goductpro.com/images/microbes.gif

The Researchers performed tests over several cities and found that a lot of microbes found in soil and in the ocean made their way into to atmosphere. This is not that much a surprise though because microbes are picked up in the dirt that blows over from the Sahara Desert and from participation of the ocean surface. Majority of the microbes detected were harmless but occasionally the Researcher’s did pick up a few nasty bugs that have the capability of destroying plants and diminishing human health. The argument used a strong sense of ethos and pathos to convince the reader that there is no need to panic over microbes in the air. 

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/microbe-census-reveals-ai/

Microbes and Snow

Do you enjoy winter sports? Well you can thank microbes for that; they play a significant role in the formation of snowflakes. Microbes, bacteria mostly are added to snowmakers at ski resorts because they have a protein cell wall that when they all come together forms a geometric patterns the allow snow creation in warmer conditions. Microbiologist Brent Christner at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge has collected microbial samples from in 19 different mountains, including Bozeman, Mont., the French Alps, Ross Island in Antarctica and a glacier in the Yukon's Wheaton River Valley. Christner found that places isolated from the public had fewer microbes.  He added heat to his samples and discovered that they could no longer aid in the formation of ice. Theoretically this means that these microbes must basically lose the ability to do this job when exposed to dust in the atmosphere. Christner, however does not think that this is sufficient evidence to prove that these microbes originated in the clouds. These microbes could have picked up during precipitation according to Christner. 

I found Christner’s argument to be understandable and to the point. He performed the experiments, ran the tests and came up with the best logical conclusion: Microbes that live in the clouds would eventually come into contact with dust particles there for stripping them of their protein cell wall disabling them from aiding in ice formation. Christner is appealing to logic and authority in his argument. Science is like a big puzzle and men like Chritner are just trying to fit the pieces together.

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-microbes-make-snow/

Microbial Aliens

     The article I chose to blog about gave a very interesting argument that live on other planets like Mars and Venus probably dwell deep beneath the surface. Half a mile deep in a South African goldmine newly discovered microbes were found in pools of water heated by decaying uranium and thorium. Testing reports showed that the new ecosystem has flourished for the last 20 million years. These newly discovered microbes use hydrogen and are sulfate reducers that closely resemble Desulfotomaculum kuznetsovii that are found near vents on the ocean floor. This new species does not rely on the sun and receive all their resources from inorganic processes. Scientist claim that the micro organism has a 45 to 300 day doubling period dubbing species very inactive.

http://www.standardsingenomics.org/index.php/sigen/article/viewFile/362/882/7701

     I found the argument to be very convincing. The writer used Ethos and Logos to convey his argument in a very straight forward manner. The evidence presented offers a clear cut example that life is able to flourish underground for millions maybe even billions of years. The Mars rover has been looking for life on the surface of Mars for awhile now. This new discovery suggests that maybe we are looking in the wrong place and we should rethink our approach at searching for live beyond our planet. Microbes are truly one of the most resilient and sufficient organisms we know of and this article just goes to show that as we discover more about our own planet we in turn are better able to understand the planets that surround us.    

 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/et-may-be-a-microbe-life/