• Question: What bacteria or disease could take over the world? Pls tell me I’m curious 😁

    Asked by I’m Lenny(ಥ ͜ʖಥ) to David, Gemma, Matt, Stéphane on 15 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Stéphane Berneau

      Stéphane Berneau answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      Hi Lenny,

      Yes, it could happen. The bacteria or virus could make us extinct if we do not have a natural protection (genes) or chemical protection (antibiotics or vaccin).
      Ebola is one of the lastest most dangerous virus epidemy which killed a lot of humans (mostly Africa).

      This could be a very quick extinction. That’s why each country has a project ready to be applied in case of infectious hazards.

      All good movies with zombies started with a virus or a bacteria.
      I have selected a nice video about how the pandemic could spread:

      Enjoy and don’t forget to vote 😉

    • Photo: Matt Bawn

      Matt Bawn answered on 15 Mar 2018:

      But bacteria have already taken over the Earth!

      It is estimated that there are

      5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

      bacteria on earth?

      https://sciencing.com/how-many-bacteria-live-earth-4674401.html

      There are 100 million times as many bacteria in the oceans (13 × e28) as there are stars in the known universe:

      https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2644

      Everywhere we look we find microbial life. Even in our bodies there may be as many as 10 bacterial cells for every ‘human’ cell, and every animal so far investigated (except maybe for the catepilar) has bacteria living inside them. Some may even influence our behaviour:

      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395615000655

      we obviously think of the world from a very anthropocentric point of view, but imagine it from the microbes, to them we are just another habitat and one that is accelerating their evolution through our agricultural and health care and travel practices (the use of pesticides, antibiotics and growth promoters).

      Then if you consider that for each bacteria there are estimated to be 10 viruses trying to infect it:

      “if all the 1 × e31 viruses on earth were laid end to end, they would stretch for 100 million light years.”

      Would you still be so sure whose planet this was?

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