This was a great summary of things I’ve learned over the years but don’t think about often enough any longer! Very well put together and written. Despite their simplicity, or maybe because of it, bacteria have managed to colonize and thrive in almost every environment possible. In fact, most animals wouldn’t survive without these ‘simple’ organisms aiding in major physiological systems as part of the various microbiomes that live within their bodies. So, they may be simple evolutionarily and genetically speaking, but they are survivors and if we get to the point of really messing up this planet to the point of mass extinction, they will survive (in my humble opinion!). And, in a real cool kind of irony, humans wouldn’t know what we do about genetics without manipulating them, particularly the bacteria (whose name escapes me) used in PCR!! Thanks so much for this fun post!
Absolutely fantastic essay, I learned a ton, absolutely love this kind of "basic question followed through" format! Very clear and satisfying answer to a question which immediately intrigued me when I saw the title.
Minor points:
Footnote 11, should that be "vertebrates like us"? Also this might be a problem with the substack app, but the footnotes didn't work as links.
This was a great summary of things I’ve learned over the years but don’t think about often enough any longer! Very well put together and written. Despite their simplicity, or maybe because of it, bacteria have managed to colonize and thrive in almost every environment possible. In fact, most animals wouldn’t survive without these ‘simple’ organisms aiding in major physiological systems as part of the various microbiomes that live within their bodies. So, they may be simple evolutionarily and genetically speaking, but they are survivors and if we get to the point of really messing up this planet to the point of mass extinction, they will survive (in my humble opinion!). And, in a real cool kind of irony, humans wouldn’t know what we do about genetics without manipulating them, particularly the bacteria (whose name escapes me) used in PCR!! Thanks so much for this fun post!
Absolutely fantastic essay, I learned a ton, absolutely love this kind of "basic question followed through" format! Very clear and satisfying answer to a question which immediately intrigued me when I saw the title.
Minor points:
Footnote 11, should that be "vertebrates like us"? Also this might be a problem with the substack app, but the footnotes didn't work as links.
But not THAT simple… https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337134/
The footnotes are broken in the app