Bacteriophages: The Most Common Life-Like Form on Earth
Posted on April 24, 2008 Comments (2)

There are more bacteriophages on Earth than any other life-like form. These small viruses are not clearly a form of life, since when not attached to bacteria they are completely dormant. Bacteriophages attack and eat bacteria and have likely been doing so for over 3 billion years. Although initially discovered early last century, the tremendous abundance of phages was realized more recently when it was found that a single drop of common seawater typically contains millions of them. Extrapolating, phages are likely to be at least a billion billion times more numerous than humans. Pictured above is an electron micrograph of over a dozen bacteriophages attached to a single bacterium. Phages are very small — it would take about a million of them laid end-to-end to span even one millimeter. The ability to kill bacteria makes phages a potential ally against bacteria that cause human disease, although bacteriophages are not yet well enough understood to be in wide spread medical use.
Photo credit: Wikipedia Electron micrograph of bacteriophages attached to a bacterial cell. These viruses have the size and shape of coliphage T1.; Insert: Mike Jones
Related: webcast of Bacteriophage T4 – types of microbes – What are Viruses? – Amazing Science: Retroviruses – Using Bacteria to Carry Nanoparticles Into Cells
Categories: Life Science, Popular, Science, Students
Tags: bacteria, Life Science, microbes, Popular, Science, science facts, virus
2 Responses to “Bacteriophages: The Most Common Life-Like Form on Earth”
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March 17th, 2009 @ 11:45 am
“when aluminum rusts, it forms aluminum oxide, an entirely different animal. In crystal form, aluminum oxide is called corundum, sapphire or ruby (depending on the color), and it is among the hardest substances known…”
March 2nd, 2012 @ 9:36 am
Now a team of researchers has found a single iron atom at the head of the spike, a discovery that suggests phages enter bacteria in a different way than surmised…