Amazing bacteria

Humans have always tried to find the best way to store information. Many millennia ago, we started sharing our ideas through paintings inside caves. Then came books and computers, and we recently learned that diamonds are great data storage devices. But then bacteria entered the game when scientists managed to insert information into them. That’s right: Some microbes can transport text, videos, and images in their bodies, turning them into living computers.It happens that when bacteria destroy an enemy virus, they store small parts of the virus’s DNA inside their own bodies. In this way, microbes learn to recognize similar threats in the future. Taking advantage of that mechanism, scientists from Harvard University first cultivated a population of 600,000 Escherichia coli bacteria. Then, they coded an image of a human hand and a short video of a galloping horse into a DNA strand.[5] And finally, the E. coli received electric shocks so that they activated their defense mechanism and thus absorbed the man-made DNA.

If everything goes well, humans can expect to live a little over 70 years on average. Some reptiles can live close to 200 years, while a few trees have lived around 5,000 years. But all that is just a blink (figurative, of course) for the oldest bacteria in the world. Indeed, in 2007, researchers discovered bacteria more than half a million years old, which were still alive.A team of scientists from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) obtained samples of these bacteria in layers of ice in Canada, Russia, and Antarctica. It is estimated that the microbes have been alive for about 600,000 years, and when scientists looked at their DNA, they were surprised to see that it was almost intact. This is something extremely unusual for creatures of that age, since DNA starts to break down after some time. To survive for millennia, many microorganisms enter a state of almost total inactivity, but even so, their DNA will continue to suffer great damage.The key to the long life of these old bacteria lies in their amazing ability to self-repair their DNA. Instead of becoming lethargic and suspending its functions to survive, this particular creature keeps a small part of its metabolism active. In this way, the body of the bacterium will keep constantly repairing its own DNA while waiting for the environment to become more favorable for reproduction.There have been other reports of even older living bacteria, such as 250-million-year-old bacteria trapped in salt crystals. However, these reports remain unconfirmed, and it is speculated that the samples were contaminated with modern microbes while in the laboratory. By contrast, the 600,000-year-old bacteria are authentic, since the researchers made sure to avoid any form of contamination during the tests.[10]

Magnetotactic bacteria, living magnets

Photo: Nature
Magnetism is an amazing superpower! Perception of electromagnetic fields, control of metallic objects and movement in space simply due to the magnetic field of our planet - all this sounds very tempting, but also absolutely impossible for mere mortals. However, this does not mean that there are no other creatures in the world who can do it. In particular, magnetotactic bacteria have already mastered all these skills quite a long time ago, becoming real living magnets.
A magnetotactic bacterium is a microorganism that can absorb iron oxide molecules and combine them to form tiny organelles called magnetosomes. These magnetic granules are 100,000 times smaller than a grain of rice, so a lot of them fit inside the bacterium. It is these tiny internal magnets that allow unusual microorganisms to feel the Earth's magnetic field and choose a direction, depending on where there is more food. And this is just the beginning...
Magnetotactic bacteria live mainly in swamps and other waters with low oxygen concentration, and therefore they constantly have to move in search of a more satisfying place. However, sometimes the sediment at the bottom of a stagnant reservoir is so dense that this microbe can no longer cope with the help of its flagellum alone. That's when the secret superpower starts up - with the help of its magnetosomes, the bacterium enters the mode of interaction with the Earth's magnetic field, which helps it get out of the trap. By the way, to remove these bacteria from the human body, scientists have developed a technology that also relies on their magnetism. Experts have learned how to saturate magnetotactic bacteria with magnetosomes, and then kill them with "magnetic heating." Perhaps in the future we will be able to use these microbes and their magnetosomes to fight contagious viruses on a large scale.