Tuesday 19 March 2013

Why is Microbiology Important?

What am I doing, banging on about microbes? Why do microbes matter?

The field of microbiology is relatively old, as science goes; the ancient Romans knew that some invisible life forms sometimes caused disease. However, unlike some other disciplines, the huge bulk of discoveries in microbiology have come about in the past 200 years. This rapid acceleration in learning was kick started in the 1600s when scientists like Kircher and van Leeuwenhoek used lenses to magnify, enabling us to see tiny microscopic creatures. Before this time, the only evidence we had of microbes was the effects they had on the world around us.


So, what are microbes?

A microbe (or micro-organism) is a living creature which is very very tiny. No, really - they're tiny!! Microbes are microscopic, which means they can't be seen with the naked eye; they can only be seen under a microscope.
Image provided by Ardelfin (www.morguefile.com/creative/ardelfin)

To put this in context: the species of Bacteria which I research, called Campylobacter concisus, is roughly 3 micrometres long - in other words three millionths of a metre, or 0.000003 metres. In some very quick (quite literally done on the back of an envelope) maths, I calculate that approximately 140000 bacterial cells could fit into the full stop at the end of this sentence.

Microbes are often unicellular (or single-celled) organisms. All living creatures are made of cells; complex animals like humans are made from trillions of cells which are specialised to do different jobs (like brain cells, blood cells and kidney cells). For unicellular microbes, each individual cell is a complete organism, and it must do everything required to survive: eat, move, sense danger and everything else they might require. Some microbes a multicellular; but even these are very small. The term 'microbe' covers things like Bacteria and Fungi, as well as unicellular animals like amoebae and algae. Microbes have evolved to live in almost every niche on the planet, and some are able to survive in extremely challenging environments.
 
Tiny cells, big business

Although the numbers are hard to find (and it's tough to get my brain to work after a day helping undergrads in the lab!), I estimate that microbes are worth many hundreds (if not thousands) of billions of pounds every year!!

 A big claim, but here's my logic:

  • According to a report published by The Brewers of Europe, european beer sales were worth 106 billion Euros (£93.1 billion) in 2010 (www.brewersofeurope.org)
  • ReportLinker says that the Vitamin and Supplements industry is worth $68 billion (£59.8 billion)
  • US Drug companies represented by PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) invested $49.5 billion (£32.8 billion) in 2011 (http://www.phrma.org/about/about-phrma)
Since these industries, and many others, are intrinsically underpinned by microbes, the total yearly economic value of those teeny, tiny bugs works out as mega bucks! There's also the food industry which produces things like bread, quorn and Marmite with microbes; agriculture which relies on nitrogen-fixing Bacteria in the soil to grow crops; even your body needs microbes to keep your immune system in check and to stop harmful disease-causing microbes from colonising the body.

Image provided by Jusben (www.morguefile.com/creative/Jusben)

So, next time you're washing your hands, think carefully about those tiny, invisible, living organisms circling the plughole in a a swirl of soapy suds.










 

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