For Young Minds Publications
Frontiers for Young Minds by Julia M. Otte
Sharing Electrons
An Extraordinary Friendship Between Bacteria
Did you know that iron is one of the most important elements on Earth? It is assumed that life evolved close to iron sources. This means that the earliest life forms—and therefore oldest creatures—were able to use iron to obtain energy the way we use food. These tiny organisms are called iron microorganisms and can occur in sediments, which are mainly muddy sand. But less was known about where iron microorganisms live in these sediments—are they located close to the water surface or deep in the sediment? In this study, a team from the University of Tübingen investigated the distribution and variety of iron microorganisms. The scientists discovered that iron microorganisms live independent from their favorite foods: iron, oxygen, and light! This independence might be explained by an unexpected extraordinary friendship with a “living cable.” Are you curious about what a living cable is?
.jpg)
The True Superheroes
Microorganisms Survive it All!
Did you know that microorganisms can live far up in the clouds and deep in the Earth’s crust? These tiny organisms have adapted to all special habitats on Earth. To study special habitats, scientists can focus on the microorganisms and their biological reactions, or on the non-living components, like minerals and chemical reactions. However, it can be difficult to separate the two! Since little was known about the best way to remove microorganisms from environmental samples without changing the non-living properties of the sample, we decided to perform an experiment to find out. We exposed marine sediments to three different methods of sterilization, to see which method was best for eliminating microorganisms. We also studied whether the three methods affected the chemical properties of our samples. We found that it is challenging to create sterile conditions because some microorganisms can survive high pressure, high temperature, radiation, and toxic chemicals!
