These are gonna blow your mind.
Like, seriously warp your brain into different colors.
1) It only took 500 million years for life on Earth to develop. Flash-in-the-pan bio-organic ungodliness of swiftness.
2) There are microbes that are indefinitely self-sufficient - that is to say, they require no other living things to procreate. Think about harvesting those genes, huh? Get you some microbial immortality!
3) Epulopiscium fishelsoni is a bacterium that lives in the guts of surgeonfish and is visible to the naked eye. This thing doesn't even have a nucleus and yet somehow has the metabolism to maintain its 0.5 mm long existence. Fat man needs some Atkins. Could make it a pet.
4) Some microbes, like that producing "desert varnish," may take centuries to divide. {sings} MOOOAAARR immortality...! Albeit decidedly boring...
Fun quotes from my textbook:
"Most of them [bacteria] look like unassuming little sausages..."
-later-
"In this respect, they [pili] resemble grappling hooks (reminiscent of those used by ninjas)."
Why microbes are better than you:
They can survive...
1) 5 megarads of gamma radiation
2) 8 000 ATM (117 000 lbs/in^2)
They can propagate in...
1) between 0 and 11.4 pH
2) between -15 and 121 ˚C
3) 1 300 ATM (18 500 lbs/in^2)
4) 5.2 M NaCl (high osmotic pressure)
This will probably be updated later.
I love this class.
Source: Microbe by Schaechter, Ingraham, and Neidhardt
Inappropriate citing for the win.
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