Answering Essential QuestionNumber 2

By Vrishti (J Period)

How do viruses, bacteria and protists impact our lives in both

positive and negative ways?

Viruses, bacteria, and protists can be considered harmful or harmless. Some of them may even be helpful to some

organisms.

Viruses are mostly harmful! If a virus enters a host cell, it begins to reproduce inside the host. Then in it will burst out of the host and infect other cells. Since

cells are the basic unit of all organisms, a virus can affect the organism’s health just by entering one of

the organism’s cell.

Some just enter the cell and reproduce, causing no harm.

But now…scientists are figuring out a way to use the viruses to cure people with

diseases by using “Gene Therapy”. Since scientists know what they do well-

entering a cell and injecting it’s genetic material- , they’ll take advantage of it. We hope this will be successful in the future!

Bacteria…on the other hand, are mostly

helpful! They help us and our environment.

For example:-Help humans digest food- Protects us against other

harmful bacteria-Clean up oil spills

- Help make medicines- Produce some of the

vitamins our body needs.

Unfortunately, there are bacteria that cause harm to our body. Strep throat,

Food Poisoning, Tuberculosis, and other

types of illnesses and diseases are caused by

bacteria. Anyone can get it through physical contact (person to person) or inhaling

infected droplets from the air.

Protists are unicellular or multicellular organisms that live in moist or wet surroundings such as, oceans, swamps, and

ponds. Examples of protists are. . .

algae, amoeba, slime molds, and paramecium

They can be animal- like, plant-like, or fungus-like

There are certain ways that a protist can be helpful. Algae might seem very plant-like, but they do not have stems, roots, or leaves like real plants. They’re also green

because they contain chloroplasts that help them photosynthesize. And we all know that when they photosynthesize…they produce

OXYGEN! Just what we need.In some Asian countries, they

cook seaweed as food. They are

considered healthy and

delicious to them.

Protists that are animal-like can be helpful and harmful at the same time. There are some parasitic protists can cause harm to some

organisms. For example…Malaria is a disease caused by a protist called Plasmodium. People who got Malaria might have been bitten by a

mosquito containing plasmodium.

Viruses, bacteria, and protists can make a huge impact in our lives in many different ways… whether its

negative or positive.

Resources…

http://www.livelifewell.nsw.gov.au/images/layoutimage.jpg

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/light-virus-1.jpg

http://chsweb.lr.k12.nj.us/mstanley/outlines/protista/protis4.jpg

http://nccam.nih.gov/news/newsletter/2006_summer/images/lactobacillus.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57336354@N00/2338460514/

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l235/NoSeas/Noticias/Septiembre-2006/vihreproduce.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chudtsankov/3076638509/

http://horula.ca/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/yoghurt.jpg

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/images/9/91/M.tuberculosis.jpg

http://www.becomehealthynow.com/conditions/images/digestive/amoeba1.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sifu_renka/474829980/

Clip Art