LONDON: In a recent paper published in Nature Communications paper, researchers presented what is considered to be the smallest or tiniest living things on Earth. The researchers presented a microscopic image of the said living things.
On their paper, the researchers said that the aptly named “ultra-small bacteria” have an average volume of just .009 cubic microns. Microns means a millionth the length of a meter. To make it simpler, 150 of these bacteria could fit into the better-known E. coli, and 150,000 or more of them could sit on the tip of a human hair.
In addition, these bacteria are too small that a water that passed sterilization process can still have .2 microns.
For their study, the researchers found their samples in groundwater from Colorado and studied in a lab at Berkeley. Despite the images of the said bacteria and being found everywhere, these bacteria are still considered mysterious according to the researchers.
“We don’t know the function of half the genes we found in the organisms from these three phyla,” Berkeley professor and study collaborator Jill Banfield said in a statement. “They’re enigmatic. These bacteria are detected in many environments and they probably play important roles in microbial communities and ecosystems. But we don’t yet fully understand what these ultra-small bacteria do.”
Scientists are not just looking at the big things outside our planet but they also want to understand how small things specially the smallest ones survive. The scientists are also looking forward to comparing bacteria and their existence on Earth to a possible existence anywhere else in the solar system.
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