Micro-organisms

Richard Spilsbury, Louise Spilsbury

Description

Our world is filled with living things too small to see. Some of these microorganisms are harmful, and some are helpful. This book explores the amazing diversity of microorganisms and looks at how we depend on them.

Informations

• Publié par: Capstone Global Library
• Date de parution: 15 août 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781406269048
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 25 Mo

Extrait

Essential Life Science

Louise and Richard Spilsbury

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Text © Capstone Global Library Limited 2014 First published in hardback in 2014 The moral rights of the proprietor have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (www. cla.co.uk). Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission should be addressed to the publisher.

Edited by Andrew Farrow and Diyan Leake Designed by Victoria Allen Original illustrations © Capstone Global  Library Ltd 2014 Picture research by Ruth Blair Production by Sophia Argyris Originated by Capstone Global Library Ltd Printed in China by CTPS

ISBN 978 1 406 26230 8 17 16 15 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Spilsbury, Louise.  Micro-organisms. -- (Essential life science)  1. Micro-organisms--Juvenile literature.  I. Title II. Series III. Spilsbury, Richard, 1963-  579-dc23

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs: Alamy pp. 11 (© Aquascopic), 18 (© Richard Grin), 26 (© SuperStock), 38 (© Doug Perrine); Capstone Publishers (© Karon Dubke) pp. 12, 13, 24, 25, 36, 37, 42; Corbis pp. 6 (© Reg Morrison/Auscape/ Minden Pictures), 15 (© 3d4Medical.com), 16 (© Martin Ruetschi/Keystone), 30 (© doable/ amanaimages), 31 (© John Rensten); Getty Images pp. 4 (G. Wanner), 7 (Dr. Fred Hossler), 9 (CNRI/ Science Photo Library), 17 (Camilla Watson), 21 (Kallista Images), 28 (Peter Dazeley), 29 (Digital Vision), 35 (Blackpool College /Oxford Scientic), 40 (Visuals Unlimited, Inc./Gregory Basco), 41 (Don Johnston); Shutterstock pp. 14 (© Monkey Business Images), 17 (© Jultud), 19 (© Elenamiv), 23 (© Rido), 32 (© bofotolux), 33 (© carroteater), 34 (© BMJ), 39 (© Henrik Larsson); Superstock pp. 10 (Johner), 43 (Blend Images).

Cover photograph of anthrax bacteria reproduced with permission of Getty Images (MedicalRF.com).

Every eort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectied in subsequent printings if notice is given to the publisher.

Disclaimer All the internet addresses (URLs) given in this book were valid at the time of going to press. However, due to the dynamic nature of the internet, some addresses may have changed, or sites may have changed or ceased to exist since publication. While the author and publisher regret any inconvenience this may cause readers, no responsibility for any such changes can be accepted by either the author or the publisher.

Contents

What are micro-organisms? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 What are bacteria like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How do bacteria help us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 How do bacteria harm us? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 What are viruses like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Where do fungi grow? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 What are protists?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 How can we stay safe with microbes?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Find out more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Eureka moment! Learn about important discoveries that have brought about further knowledge and understanding.

Some words are shown in bold,like this. You can find out what they mean by looking in the glossary.

i know Discover fascinating facts about micro- organisms.

Read about the latest research and advances in essential science.

ife

What are micro-organisms? Microorganisms are tiny living things that are too small for us to see with just our eyes. The wordmicroorganismis short for I N microscopic organism, which means they are living things we can only see with amicroscope.

There are micro-organisms everywhere: in the air, soil, and water, on food, and on and in our bodies. In this book, we’re going to look at the four main types of micro-organism: bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists. A single bacteria is called a Millions of bacteria can fit o

4

bacterium. n the point of a single pin! There are more bacteria than any other type of living thing found on the planet.

Eureka moment! When Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was looking at scrapings from his teeth through a very simple microscope in 1674, he became the first person to observe micro-organisms.