Bacteria Article 1: Did you know?

Bacteria have been around for at least 3.5 billion years longer than
humans, dinosaurs, and even plants! As a matter of fact, bacteria
were probably the first creatures to appear on Earth, back when our
planet was a tempestuous mass of lava, swirling gases, and boiling
water.
Proteins, the building blocks of life, emerged out of this primordial
soup, and the very first bacteria were simply collections of these
proteins that had a genetic blueprint and could reproduce. Why did
they become so successful? Well, there are two main reasons.
First, bacteria can reproduce incredibly fast. Bacteria create offspring
by simply dividing in two (a process known as binary fission),
sometimes as quickly as once every 20 minutes. At that rate, one
bacterium could give rise to a billion in just 10 hours time!
Also, since bacteria are very simple organism, their entire DNA string is
very short. This means that mutations changes in the genetic code
occur more frequently in bacteria than they do in other organisms.
This ability to mutate frequently allows bacteria to adjust to changes in
their environment. If temperatures get hotter, bacteria with genes that
have mutated to withstand high temperatures will survive and pass
this trait along to their offspring and since they can reproduce
quickly, a large culture of the new, heat-resistant bacteria will soon
develop!
Together, these two abilities to reproduce quickly and to mutate
have allowed bacteria to survive for billions of years in nearly all
conditions.

Bacteria Article 2: Trivia

95 percent of all the cells in the human body are bacteria most
of them live in the intestinal tract. In fact, you have more
bacterial cells in your body than human cells!
There are more bacteria in your colon right now than there are
human beings who have ever lived on the planet Earth. These
bacteria ferment 100 grams of food every day!
The largest bacteria ever found were discovered in the guts of
fish off the coast of Australia. Epulopiscium fishelsoni can
grow to the size of the dot in the exclamation point at the end of
this sentence thats huge for a bacterium!
Magnetotactic bacteria contain tiny magnetic iron particles.
They then move these particles in a line and use them to form a
kind of compass that aligns them with the Earths magnetic field!
Deinococcus Radiodurans, a type of bacteria, can withstand a
dose of 15,000 grays of radiation 3,000 times the dose it would
take to kill a human being!

Bacteria Article 3: Sickness & Health

Bacteria that cause illness are called pathogens, and when they enter
your food, they can cause symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,
and fever!
Pathogens are most often found on high-protein foods like meat,
poultry, eggs, and seafood-although fruits, vegetables and other foods
can become cross-contaminated when they come in contact with raw
meat products. Even cooked food can become contaminated if it
comes in contact with raw meat!
All bacteria (not just pathogens) multiply rapidly between the
temperature of 4 and 60 degrees Celsius, so, to protect yourself
against pathogens, you should keep all refrigerated before you prepare
it, and cook (or reheat) all your food to a temperature above 60
degrees Celsius.
Examples of particularly nasty food pathogens include Clostridium
botulinum, which causes botulism, an often-fatal type of food
poisoning, Salmonella bacteria, which is often found in raw or
undercooked eggs; Steptococcus A, which causes strep throat; E.
coli, a bacteria thats helpful when found in the human intestine, but
harmful when found in the human stomach, and some strains of
Clostridium perfringens, which is sometimes called the cafeteria
germ because its often found in the food left for a long time on steam
tables or at room temperature.

Bacteria Article 4: Eating and Drinking

Most types of bacteria are harmless, and some are even beneficial. In
fact, many of the foods you eat probably were made with the aid of
bacteria.
For example, all cultured dairy products, such as cheese, yogurt, sour
cream, and buttermilk, wouldnt exist without bacteria. Lactic acid
bacteria change the sugar in milk to lactic acid, which prevents other
harmful bacteria from taking hold. They also help change liquid milk
into solid cheese; contribute enzymes that break down fats, proteins,
and sugars; and give different varieties of cheese distinctive flavors.
In fact, unique cheese flavors come from the unique varieties of
bacteria used to make them. Some cheese-makers even keep the type
of bacteria they use completely secret so no one can imitate their
products. Swiss cheese is made with bacteria that create little bubbles
of gas, which give the cheese its distinctive eyes, or holes!
Pasteurization, which removes harmful bacteria from milk through the
application of heat, often destroys lactic acid bacteria. So, in a process
called inoculation, cheese-makers sometimes add frozen or freezedried cultures of bacteria to milk. Some cheeses, like bleu cheese and
camembert, are even inoculated with mold!