"Microbiology, Environment and Biotechnology” by Pedro Ivo Guimarães

What is Microbiology? It is the study of microscopic organisms

Do you know some?

Viruses are the simplest living organisms in the world…or not? They are made of only DNA and proteins – and they look kinda terrifying in the microscope. There are a big discussion in Biology to define if viruses are alive or not.

Viruses can infect eveything! Bacteria, humans, plants, nothing is safe. We all know how we look like when we have the flu, but have you ever seen a sick plant?

Now we are going to talk about my favorite microorganism: bacteria!. “Ew, gross!”. That’s unfair! Well, I know they can get you sick and they grow in nasty places, but they can also do amazing things!

They are involved in the production of a lot of stuff:

Actually, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them.

For example, 90% of all oxygen on Earth is produced by bacteria…

The green ones, Cyanobacteria (the cutest bacteria ever)

So, let’s hunt some cyanobacteria? (Here we visualized water samples from a pond at Virginia Tech and looked for cyanobacteria and algae under the microscope)

When we use bacteria or any other living organism (or any part of a living organism) to produce useful stuff, we are doing Biotechnology! This is what I do for a living :)

Microorganisms are awesome! Not only they produce amazing things, but they keep us alive and are vital to the equilibrium of the biosphere. So, let’s give them more credit!