The human body is full of bacteria. Science doesn’t understand what all of the different bacteria in our bodies do for us. First let me explain what bacteria are, they are the simplest form of creatures which are considered to be alive. There in everything we eat and everything we grow. When you think about it, it’s kind of creepy since we have millions of them inside of us. While earth is our home for millions of bacteria our body is their home. A lot of people get confused between bacteria and viruses. Bacteria are one celled living organisms which have complete genetic codes made up of DNA and RNA, but viruses are sections of DNA and RNA and are enclosed in a protein shell. A bacteria is a hundred times larger than a virus. The virus needs a living host to multiply, but a bacteria does not, it can multiply on any surface. There are a lot of other differences, but I think one of the most important ones is science believes viruses are really not alive, at least that is what most of them believe today.

A lot of research is looking into bacteria. Some scientists believe they can use bacteria to our advantage. Since bacteria find it easy to get into our bodies and live there, it may be possible to treat them in such a way they can be used for things like delivering medicine to us far more efficiently than if we took this same medicine by mouth or in a shot. When we look at shows about animals sometimes we find animals which have developed a symbiotic relationship with other animals. That is to say one animal helps the other, because they benefit from it in some way, which is usually food. One symbiotic relationship which comes to mind is the one where sometimes hyenas hunt with wolves. The wolves benefit from the hyenas strong sense of smell while a hyena benefits from the wolves incredible hunting abilities and in this way they both find it easier to track down and kill their prey. In the ocean crabs sometimes carry poisonous sea urchins on their back. This allows the sea urchins to gain mobility while it protects the crab from some predators.

We usually don’t think of humans having a symbiotic relationship, but we do and it is with the bacteria we carry inside of us. Sometimes bacteria are responsible for diseases, but as incredible as it sounds its certainly not true all of the time, because there are times when the bacteria are inside of us are doing us a favor. Bacteria help humans with their digestion and also make it possible to return carbon, nitrogen and oxygen back to the atmosphere. If it wasn’t for bacteria life would be much different than it is now, since bacteria are responsible for decomposing waste and dead organisms. Several types of bacteria live on our skin and inside our mouth, throat, nose and intestines. It is hard to say if bacteria are helpful or harmful, because at times they could be either one or both. If science could figure out how to do away with the harmful events caused by bacteria and just keep or improve the helpful ones it could mean a lot to human organisms.

Something has happened this year and it was a sort of milestone, scientists were able to change the genetic code of a bacterium. They altered parts of the DNA code, something they never thought they would be able to do. This is the first step in changing the way bacteria operate. This could lead to so many beneficial technologies since our bodies are riddled with bacteria. One of the more amazing things I’ve heard some scientists speculate on is the fact somehow bacteria in our stomach might alter the way our brains work. Some scientists now believe bacteria not only influences the chemical makeup of our brain, but its physical makeup also. I don’t know what this has to do with anything, but for years now scientists have been trying to figure out where our consciousness comes from. Wouldn’t it be something if it was coming from the bacteria in our body? I don’t really think this is possible, but I also don’t think we can just eliminate the idea. Scientists found when they raised mice which had no bacteria in their guts, the part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex had increased in gene expression. The genes that were affected were the ones that create insulation around nerve fibers. The insulation was far thicker in those mice and created a condition the opposite of multiple sclerosis. In multiple sclerosis or MS people have a reduced amount of the shields around their nerves. Perhaps this discovery will help the body regulate the development of the shields and eventually do away with this disease.

Recently scientists have found bacteria play an important unknown role of nitrogen fixation symbiosis in plants. It seems the bacteria known as rhizobia are of extreme benefit to legumes. When this symbiosis is lost plant growth is impacted. The problem is science does not understand how this symbiosis works and more investigation will be needed. One of the questions might be how to take an ordinary legume and increase its productivity. If we could take ordinary plants and increase their output by two or more times think of how many more people we could feed in this world. Sometimes when science is looking for answers, the answers turn out to be quite simple. It may not happen many times, but it does happen. Perhaps there would be a way to increase the amount of these bacteria on a plant which would in turn make the plant grow larger, but of course I’m only guessing here and this is probably not the answer.

Many people are disgusted by the idea that bacteria live inside of us, but most of us never even give it a thought. Bacteria are not only in humans, but they are also in all types of animals. Even insects have bacteria living inside of them. This has made scientists wonder why similar bacteria are found in insects in completely different locations which eat completely different food. Right now the current thinking is perhaps wasps and mites are spreading this bacteria to these other insects, but it is just a weak theory. It is also thought the bacteria might be spread from the mother insect to its offspring. In insects some of the bacteria produce B vitamins and amino acids which help to feed the insect and sometimes even produce fungi to kill invaders.

Each one of us contains bacteria and someday this bacteria may be modified in such a way it could answer many of the health problems we have today. Look for incredible discoveries about bacteria in the near future and don’t be surprised if science figures out a way to make our lives better just by modifying these creatures.