• Question: How can bacteria benefit the future?

    Asked by they490ugh on 20 Jul 2023.
    • Photo: Bruno Silvester Lopes

      Bruno Silvester Lopes answered on 20 Jul 2023:

      Bacteria are not benefiting only our future but presently as well they make a huge difference. A lot of good bacteria in our gut such as Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, and Enterococcus are known to produce vitamins such as thiamine, folate, biotin, riboflavin, and panthothenic acid. Did you know that folic acid (in development of babies and very important for women) which is found in plants is not enough for us so who helps us? Indeed the bacterium E. coli.
      Other than that there are several uses of bacteria some can even eat plastics, others help in fermentation and production of all the good food that we eat.
      A lot of bacteria also produce antibiotics! We need to discover some new ones as well. My PhD supervisor said that the person who discovers new class of antibiotics produced by bacteria will win the Nobel prize. I still remember his words.

    • Photo: Kip Heath

      Kip Heath answered on 20 Jul 2023:

      So some people are working on bacteria that will eat plastics. That would help remove microplastics that are all over the world now.

    • Photo: Clare Morrow

      Clare Morrow answered on 24 Jul 2023:

      There are lots of ways that bacteria benefit us. Good bacteria in our gut and on our skin help to protect us against others.
      We can also use bacteria to test the effectiveness of antibiotics and other medications to help us get better. The problem is when the good bacteria get into places that they shouldnt.

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