What makes it a microbial world?
It could be because microbes were the first forms of life on the planet, and ever since then they've been flourishing and taking advantage of every possible niche and source of food. Or it could be because they are even more numerous than the stars. Or it could be because we depend on them for much of the air we breathe and the food we eat — we even need their help to digest it!
Even though a few of them are capable of killing us, the Earth without microbes would be a completely uninhabitable place. So this page is dedicated to giving credit where it is due — all hail the microbes!
A drop of seawater can contain millions of one-celled organisms called microbes. While the microbes that cause illnesses get much of the attention, most microbes are beneficial to life on Earth. In fact, microbes living in the ocean generate much of the oxygen we breathe!
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Special thanks to Dr. Tom Hanson, College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, and Dr. Eric Wommack, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment, University of Delaware, whose illustrated presentation provided the basis for this site. The animated microbe character was created by Micah Fegley, Universityof Delaware Media Services; the voice was provided by Pete Booker.
Images used in this site were in the public domain or used with
permission or license from the following sources:
MicrobeLibrary, American Society for Microbiology (ASM);
Public Health Image Library, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC); Bioimaging Laboratory, Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI),
University of Delaware; and Microbe Zoo, Digital Learning Center
for Microbial Ecology, Michigan State University.
It's a Microbial World
