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    Microbes: Discover an Unseen World
    Microbes: Discover an Unseen World
    Microbes: Discover an Unseen World
    Ebook219 pages1 hour

    Microbes: Discover an Unseen World

    By Christine Burillo-Kirch and Tom Casteel

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    About this ebook

    If our vision improved one million times, we would be able to see microbes in the air, on our skin, in the soil, in water, and on food! In Microbes: Discover an Unseen World, readers journey through microscopic worlds that collide with our own on a daily basis to encounter bacteria, viruses, fungi, protists, and archaea.

    There are some microbes we can't live without, such as those that help us digest our food, while others can harm or even kill us, such as influenza and ebola. Microbes looks at some of the ways the body protects itself from diseases and infections through critical thinking exercises that explore the differences between harmful and beneficial microbes. Follow in the footsteps of the scientists who had both the genius and the imagination to research and discover microbes.

    Hands-on experiments such as building a mini incubator, making bacterial growth plates, and growing fungi allow children to explore their microbiological surroundings safely while employing the scientific method to discover details about microbes. Fun facts and primary sources make learning fun and integrative, while cartoon illustrations engage kids' imaginations and prod their natural curiosity about this weird and fascinating topic.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNomad Press
    Release dateOct 19, 2015
    ISBN9781619303089
    Microbes: Discover an Unseen World

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      "If our vision improved one million times, we would be able to see microbes in the air, on our skin, in the soil, in water, and on food! In Microbes: Discover an Unseen World, readers journey through microscopic worlds that collide with our own on a daily basis to encounter bacteria, viruses, fungi, protists, and archaea,"--page [4] of cover.

    Book preview

    Microbes - Christine Burillo-Kirch

    INTRODUCTION

    MICROBES EVERYWHERE!

    Making cheese moldy is a ton of fun.

    Sick with a cold?

    You can thank me for that!

    It takes me a million years to make the oil that fuels your family’s car.

    I can live in extreme environments, such as hot volcanic vents deep in the ocean.

    Who am I? A microbe!

    WHAT ARE MICROBES?

    Take a look at your arm. Do you see anything on it? Any little creatures eating, moving, or communicating on your skin? Unless you have a microscope, you won’t be able to see them, but there are microbes everywhere—on your skin, in the air, in the food you eat, even inside your body! The word micro means small, so we know that microbes are small things. Most microbes are so small that we can’t see them without microscopes.

    WORDS TO KNOW

    environment: the area in which something lives.

    microbe: a tiny living or nonliving thing.

    The world of microbes includes both living and nonliving things. A living thing is called an organism. Living microbes are called microorganisms. Microbes are the world’s smallest organisms and include bacteria, fungi, protists, and archaea. Viruses are nonliving microbes.

    How do we know whether a microbe is living or nonliving? Let’s define what makes something alive. When we think of a living thing, we think of something that can eat, breathe, grow, and reproduce. Microorganisms can eat, breathe, grow, and reproduce, therefore we can categorize them as living.

    Microorganisms are made of one or more cells. They do not have a mouth to eat with as humans do, but they can pull in food and water across their surfaces.

    There is no nose to smell with, but microorganisms can follow chemical signals that direct them where to find food. They can also release their waste into their environment. Microorganisms cannot talk like we do, but by sending chemical messages, they can communicate with each other.

    WORDS TO KNOW

    organism: any living thing.

    microorganism: a living thing that is so small you can only see it with a microscope.

    reproduce: to make something new, just like itself.

    categorize: to put things into different groups based on their characteristics.

    cell: the most basic part of a living thing. Billions of cells make up a plant or animal.

    waste: garbage.

    All microbes want to do is make more copies of themselves!

    Nonliving microbes, such as viruses, are not dead, but they aren’t capable of doing anything on their own. They can’t eat or reproduce. You can think of nonliving microbes as sleeping. Viruses wake up when they are in the right environment, which helps them perform different tasks.

    Most microbes help their environment. These microbes do good things and even protect us! They help us digest food, provide us with medicines, and keep ecosystems, such as lakes and forests, working properly. Without microbes to digest dead plant matter, our forests would be just a big pile of leaves. Microbes that cooperate with and help their environment are called symbionts.

    Unfortunately, some microbes are destructive. These microbes are a nuisance because they can infect us. These harmful microbes are called pathogens.

    WORDS TO KNOW

    ecosystem: a community of living and nonliving things. Living things are plants, animals, and insects. Nonliving things are soil, rocks, and water.

    symbiont: a microorganism that exists in harmony with another organism. Both gain benefits from this relationship.

    infect: to invade, to cause someone or something to become sick.

    pathogen: a microbe that exists only to take advantage of other organisms. Pathogens can cause disease or even death in that organism.

    Can you remember a time when you stayed in bed because you felt sick? If you are too sick to get out of bed, you are probably infected with a pathogen. When you feel weak, your body is busy fighting off bad microbes!

    Even though we can’t see them, microbes are everywhere in our daily lives.

    We need special microscopes to be able to see microbes. Light microscopes can magnify objects thousands of times, while electron microscopes can magnify objects millions of times.

    If our eyesight improved one million times, we would be able to see microbes on dust particles, doorknobs, and our skin. Microorganisms are important to the world’s ecosystems on land and in water. They might even be able to live in outer space!

    A MICRO HISTORY

    If we can’t see microbes, how did people discover them? Let’s take a quick journey through history. Long before refrigeration, people noticed that their food would stay fresh for only a short period of time before turning rotten. The ancient Egyptians added salt to their fish and meat to prevent it from spoiling, but they didn’t understand why this worked.

    It took many imaginative and observant individuals to piece together scientific information on microbes.

    SALT PRESERVATION

    How does salt preserve food? In 1858, Dr. Louis Pasteur first made the connection between spoilage and microbes. We now know how salt stops most bacteria, mold, and fungus from spoiling food. It weakens or dehydrates these microbes so they can’t grow on food.

    WORDS TO KNOW

    spoilage: rotting or rotted.

    dehydrate: to take the water out of something.

    In the 1500s, Dr. Girolamo Fracastoro called microbes contagions, or unseen infecting particles. People still couldn’t see microbes, but imagined their presence as the reason illnesses spread between people.

    In the 1600s, Robert Hooke and Antonie van Leeuwenhoek developed instruments that allowed them to actually see some microbes. They provided detailed illustrations and descriptions that captivated people’s interest in these tiny living things. But there was still no way to control them, and many people died from different illnesses caused by microbes.

    In the 1700s, Dr. Edward Jenner made the first successful vaccine, for smallpox. This vaccine was used to prevent people from becoming infected.

    WORDS TO KNOW

    contagion: an unseen particle that is infectious.

    vaccine: a preparation containing part of or a whole microbe given to a patient to prevent disease.

    The smallpox vaccine saved many lives, just as the vaccines we use today save lives.

    In the 1800s, Dr. Louis Pasteur showed that microbes were the reason for food spoilage. He also showed that microbes could only come from parent microbes. Before his work, it was thought that microbes magically arose out of thin air!

    Did You Know

    When he became president in 1801, Thomas Jefferson was very involved in advocating that Americans get the vaccine for smallpox.

    The twentieth century saw many discoveries of medicines that kill or prevent infection from microbes. Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic, in 1937. Scientists discovered many more antibiotics in the 1950s through the 1970s.

    Today, scientists know a lot about microbes, but there is still plenty to discover! Researchers continue to work at finding cures for illnesses caused by different microbes. The more we understand about microbes, the more we can use them to improve our health and prevent them from making us sick.

    Who knows what scientists in our century will discover? Scientific discovery is an ongoing process. Scientists are always making new discoveries based on previous observations from different scientists. No single scientist is responsible for discovering microbes. Scientific discoveries build on each other, and all are important, even the smallest ones. Important scientific discoveries are happening right now—new discoveries are even challenging older scientific theories.

    WORDS TO KNOW

    antibiotic: a medicine that can disable or kill bacteria.

    theory: an unproven scientific idea.

    DO YOUR OWN MICROBIAL EXPERIMENTS

    It’s interesting to read about microbes, but it’s even more fun to discover microbes yourself! In this book you’ll become a

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