• Question: What our microbugs

    Asked by anon-190768 to Liam, Dionne on 7 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Liam Taylor

      Liam Taylor answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      There’s soooooo many! The world looks completely different under the microscope – and it is absolutely fascinating. There are organisms that are only the size of a single cell, such as bacteria, and there are millions and millions of different species. Some are good, some are bad. Then there are some super cool organisms that are a little bit bigger, but still microscopic. Tardigrades are my favourite ‘microbug’ by far. They’re often called water bears, because they live in water and look like tiny bears! The next patch of grass you see…. there are probably tardigrades living in it. Fun fact – scientists have sent them into space, boiled them, frozen them and even put them in acid and they are absolutely fine. If we find life on another planet, it’ll probably be similar to tardigrades.

    • Photo: Dionne Turnbull

      Dionne Turnbull answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      Microbes or microorganism are tiny TINY little living things! Bacteria, fungi, algae… and things like the super cute tardigrades that Liam mentioned (definitely look those up!)
      And they are everywhere. The are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are humans on earth!

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