Hyun+Ji,+Sam,+and+Hae+Na

__//**Title: Baby Bacteria**//__



Bacteria are microscopic organisms whose single cells have neither a membrane-bounded nucleus nor other membrane-bounded organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts. Another group of microbes, the archaea, meet these criteria but are so different from the bacteria in other ways that they must have had a long, independent evolutionary history since close to the dawn of life. In fact, there is considerable evidence that you are more closely related to the archaea than they are to the bacteria!

Bacteria are often maligned as the causes of human and animal disease (like this one, //Leptospira//, which causes serious disease in livestock). However, certain bacteria, the actinomycetes, produce antibiotics such as streptomycin and nocardicin; others live symbiotically in the guts of animals (including humans) or elsewhere in their bodies, or on the roots of certain plants, converting nitrogen into a usable form. Bacteria put the tang in yogurt and the sour in sourdough bread; bacteria help to break down dead organic matter; bacteria make up the base of the food web in many environments. Bacteria are of such immense importance because of their extreme flexibility, capacity for rapid growth and reproduction, and great age - the oldest fossils known, nearly 3.5 billion years old, are fossils of bacteria-like organisms.

Bacteria are very important both to the world as a whole and to mankind in particular. Bacteria are important in making soil, feeding cows, controlling insects, making medicines, making bioplastics, making plants grow, degrading pollutants such as oil and plastics as well as in causing disease. Microbiology is a huge and growing industry and even if you never intend to study microbiology any further than these pages it will be good for you to have some appreciation of the roles bacteria play in all our lives. Studying something you cannot see, something which is not pretty, colourful or cute in any form is perhaps a more cerebral activity than many people would like. Bacteria are, however, amazing creatures and I have attempted to make the information here as much fun and as interesting as possible. I hope that this will allow you to experience a little of the amazement bacteria stimulate in the many people who study them. However by the very nature of their small size and the limitations this puts on us when we studying them much of the information is a bit dry and chemical.

Bacteria are generally simple structures. The bacterial cell lacks a membrane-bound nucleus. Because of this, bacteria are described as [|prokaryotes]. Despite their simplicity, bacteria have an enormous range of metabolic capacities, and can be found in some of the most extreme environments on earth. Only a small minority of bacteria causes disease.

There are three basic shapes that bacterial cells adopt. They are either round, rod shaped or spiral. Round bacteria are referred to as cocci (//singular//: [|coccus]), and rod shaped bacteria are known as bacilli (//singular//: [|bacillus]). The term 'bacillus' meaning a rod-shaped bacterium should NOT be confused with the genus of bacteria known as '//Bacillus//'. The shape of bacterial cells is of fundamental importance in the classification and identification of bacteria. Although bacteria are of three basic shapes, they display an astonishing variety of forms when viewed microscopically.
 * Bacteria Shape**


 * [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/cocci.jpg]] || [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/rods.jpg]] || [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/ovoid.jpg]] || [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/spira.jpg]] ||
 * Cocci || Rods || Ovoids || Spira ||
 * [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/c-rod1.jpg]] || [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/c-rod3.jpg]] || [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/spirochaete.jpg]] || [[image:http://www.earthlife.net/prokaryotes/images/filamentous.jpg]] ||
 * Curved Rods || Curved Rods || Spirochaetes || Filamentous ||


 * Fun Facts about Bacteria:**
 * Bacteria help our bodies with digestion and produce needed vitamins. Bacteria also help us by destroying harmful organisms within our bodies.
 * There are more bacterial cells in your body than there are human cells.
 * Most bacteria reproduce using a process called "binary fission." To do this, a single bacterium will grow to twice its normal size and then split into two "daughter" cells. The two new cells are exact copies of the original bacterium.
 * Bacteria are used to make cheese, milk, sourdough bread and yogurt.
 * 99% of all bacteria are helpful.
 * Dead or weakened bacteria and viruses are used for making helpful vaccines.
 * Scientists estimate that bacteria produce nearly half the oxygen found in the atmosphere.
 * Helpful bacteria are used to purify water at sewage treatment plants and to break down oil after oil spills.
 * One healthy bacterium, given the proper environment, could reproduce into a colony of more than 2 million in just seven hours.
 * There are more microbes on your body than there are humans on the entire planet.
 * An area of skin as small as 6.5 square cm (1 square inch) may be home to more than half a million microbes.

How does the pH level of liquids change the growth of the bacteria?
 * Question:**

To find the growth of bacteria
 * Aim:**

Sodium Hydroxide - pH 12 Water - pH 7 Sprite - pH 5 Detergent - pH 14 Bleach - pH 6 Lemon Juice - pH 4
 * Background:**


 * Materials / Setup:**
 * 1) pH level indicator
 * 2) Bleach
 * 3) Sodium Hydroxide
 * 4) Lemon juice
 * 5) Sprite
 * 6) Detergent
 * 7) Water
 * 8) Petri dishes
 * 9) Computer enabled microscope


 * Procedure:**
 * 1) Measure all the pH level of each liquid substance - sprite, NaOH, H20, detergent, bleach and lemon juice and record it.
 * 2) Use cotton swap to get the sample of each liquid substance and rub it to the petri dishes for each substance.
 * 3) Leave it in the incubator.
 * 4) After you have a full grown bacteria, record the growth of the bacteria.
 * 5) Then record how does the different PH level affects the growth of the bacteria.


 * Substance** - started on Tuesday(March 18, 2008)

The first picture is the bleach we used, 2nd picture is the first day of bacteria growth, and the last picture is bacteria grown after a week.
 * Results** -

The first picture is the detergent, 2nd picture is the first day of bacteria growth, and the last picture is bacteria gown after a week. The first picture is the lemon juice, 2nd picture is the first day of bacteria growth, and the last picture is bacteria grown after a week. The first picture is the 0.1M of Sodium Hydroxide, 2nd picture is the first day of bacteria growth, and the last picture is bacteria grown after a week. The first picture is Sprite, 2nd picture is the first day of bacteria growth, and the last picture is bacteria grown after a week. The first picture is water, 2nd picture is the first day of bacteria growth, and the last picture is bacteria grown after a week.