We are the cleaners of environment- Bacteria article 200&250 words
Answers
In the quest of
ecological damage and imbalances humans are causing, many enterprising scientists are turning to the endlessly inventive natural world — for example bacteria that can metabolize oil spilled into the sea, or plants that take up toxic compounds. And such amazing life forms are everywhere.
Microbiologist David Emerson has located one such fascinating life form in a ditch near Boothbay, Maine. The ditch is filled with bright orange rusty water, and is teeming with an organism called Leptothrix ochracea, a sort of iron-oxidizing bacteria.
Emerson is one of the few people who likes this unpopular type of bacteria, which survives by feeding on the iron dissolved in particular water flows. Most people consider it a nuisance.
“These organisms are pretty heavily involved in fouling and corrosion of water pipelines,” Emerson says. “Entire systems have gotten clogged with iron bacteria.”
If Leptothrix ochracea gets into a water system, it can turn your tap water bright orange. They’re not all bad though. Once the bacteria feed on the iron, it turns to rust, and that rust can grab onto stuff floating by — like arsenic, other harmful metals, even viruses. In other words, these bacteria can actually help filter water. And that rust is remarkably delicate.
“What makes them special for me is that when you look at them under the microscope, they make these amazing structures of either tubes or twisted stalks,” says microbiologist Emily Fleming.