Harry Kraus, age 10, of Newport News, Virginia, for his question:
Is it true we cannot live without bacteria?
Suppose there were no bacteria in the world of nature. People would never come down with whooping cough, or typhoid fever. However, there is another side to the story. There would be no breathable oxygen in the air. There would be no salad greens and no vegetables on our menus, no meat, no eggs and no dairy products. Even if we found other foods, we could not digest them. So whether we like it or not, we cannot live without bacteria.
Staying alive is a very complicated business: We need a never ending supply of oxygen. in the air and dozens of chemical ingredients in our daily diets. We also need clean water and fuels to keep us warm and do the cooking. These are some of the basic necessities of life and every day the world population uses up countless tons of them. Yet every day, the earth provides fresh supplies of oxygen, foods and other necessities. These secret operations go on behind the scenes and zillions of busy bacteria are needed to keep things going.
Nowadays we are learning to recycle our waste materials back to the soil. There the molecules are broken apart and the separate atoms often arranged in different molecule packages. This is chemistry. And nature's master chemists are the bacteria. They work behind the scenes because they are too small to be seen.
Most of the many bacteria types are specialists. Coli bacteria live in our intestines and help to digest our food. They also help cats to digest their meat and rabbits to digest their vegetables. Without certain bacteria, a cow could not digest her cud and we would get no beef or dairy products.
Decay bacteria teem in the soil and water. These chemistry specialists thrive on waste materials and change their molecules into usable plant foods. Plants need many different chemicals, but they must be served in certain forms. They need nitrogen, yet they cannot use the tons of plain nitrogen in the air. But certain bacteria fix nitrogen in molecules of nitrates, nitrogen compounds that plants can use.
All plants depend on a variety of bacteria and we depend on the thriving plants. They supply our oxygen and vegetables. They feed our cows and all the other animals in the world. Even the fishes depend on bacteria to recycle the wastes in the water. Certainly we need the bacteria to stay alive. So do all the plants and other
Right now, billions of busy bacteria are helping to create your food and oxygen. Some are recycling wastes in the soil and water. Others are making buttermilk, cheese and vinegar. A few very special types are busy creating wonder drugs, such as streptomycin. These friendly types far outnumber the hostile bacteria that cause food poisoning, whooping cough and various other diseases.