Slow-mo For Life!

Slow-Mo Microbes and the Expansion of Life

Have you ever wondered if microbes are slow or fast? Or how long they can wait to eat? The answer is, both, but in this article the microbes are very slow. Also it talks about how some microbe chose not to eat if there isn’t anything they like. Some humans can barely hold their breath under water for more than a few minutes. While some marine animals like seals can hold their breath for up to an hour. Some microbial communities can do even more then that! These microbes use so little oxygen that they can be considered to not be living. As you all know Aerobic microbes require oxygen to generate energy. Whereas anaerobic microbes can replace oxygen with sulfur and nitrate. This is less energy efficient, and helps certain microbes survive wherever they may be.  The North Pacific Gyre is the most nutrient poor place in the ocean. This means that some microbes Hans Roy, who attends the center for Geomicrobiology at Aarhus University in Denmark, found oxygen penetrating the sediment as deep as 30 metres. When food from the surface lands on the sea floor it will take about 1000 years for another piece to land on that. The bulk of large edible items will be eaten but the stuff that is left, that is not nutrient efficient becomes buried, and microbes don’t like it. So it is eaten very slowly. When there is nothing to eat the bacteria do not breathe and the oxygen just floats there.  

I believe everything in this article comes across very clearly. The details are very clear and help support what Leigh Phillips is trying to tell us. Nothing was unclear, it just seemed that I needed to brush up on certain vocabulary, and remind myself on some of the things that microbes do. I didn’t really need to ask any questions as the details helped keep most of the content clear. The author seemed to use ethos the most. Only because he’s not trying to get us emotionally involved in the text and he isn’t trying to have a huge logical base to get the message across. It was definitely not biased since there were actually two different subjects in the article as a whole. 

http://www.nature.com/news/slo-mo-microbes-extend-the-frontiers-of-life-1.10669