The End of the Bacteria in the Tube

Hello there,

You don't need to be a microbiologist to understand the article below. In fact, with the example I always give, microorganisms do not differ significantly from other living things in nature. I will explain the bacteria in the test tube below; If you want, continue with fish in a small aquarium. In large aquariums, the ecosystem is established by itself. Therefore, I continued through the small aquarium.

Let's transfer the raw milk to a test tube and keep it at room temperature. Raw milk contains a lot of bacteria, and milk is an excellent food source for the vast majority of bacteria. Under this condition, bacteria will begin to multiply. You can think of it like fish in a small aquarium if you want. You feed the fish every day, but you never clean the aquarium; that is, you have no intervention other than feeding and reasonable temperature.

All living species need certain nutrients in order to feed and grow and reproduce. The same rules apply for fish, plants, birds, microorganisms. Of course, the plant and animal kingdoms feed differently, but they all need nutrients to feed on. The diet of microorganisms is similar to that of the animal kingdom, with a few very specific exceptions. Let's not get into the nutrition of plants at this stage and continue with the animal kingdom and bacteria.

Nutrients taken into the body are digested (metabolism). During this process, large-molecule nutrients are broken down into smaller molecules, energy is obtained and cell structures are synthesized. Various wastes (metabolites) occur during metabolism and these are thrown out of the cell. In bacteria, these wastes are acids, alcohols, CO2, etc. While in the animal kingdom, these wastes are mainly urine and feces.

There is everything necessary for growth and reproduction in the tube (or small aquarium): enough nutrients, enough water, suitable temperature, etc.

While reproduction continues, wastes continue to accumulate in the indoor environment in parallel with this, and at some point their own wastes begin to disturb the bacteria in the tube (or the fish in the aquarium). At this stage, there is a slowdown in reproduction, but life goes on. While some non-resistant bacteria (fish) begin to die, new bacterial cells (fish) are formed and their metabolites continue to be released into the environment, so metabolite accumulation increases, albeit slowly.

At this stage, life is getting harder and harder. Mass deaths begin to occur, but some bacterial cells (fish) try to reproduce even in their last breath to ensure the continuation of their species, and their metabolite accumulation continues, albeit slightly. This accumulation of metabolites, albeit very little, leads to an increase in mass mortality. As a result, not a single living bacterium remains in the tube. This is what we call autosterilization in microbiology.

I know that the fish sample in the aquarium and the bacteria in the tube do not exactly match. There are bacteria in fish feces, they also feed on fish food, acid etc. They produce metabolites and these metabolites disturb both the fish and the bacteria in the aquarium. After all, there is only time difference. Auto-sterilization for bacteria in the tube takes about 2 weeks, but because the growth rate of fish in the aquarium is very slow compared to bacteria, it will probably take months for all the fish to die.

Let's continue with these examples and come to people and the world. The earth is no different from the tube and the small aquarium. Hundreds of thousands of different kinds of creatures live together in a closed natural environment in the world, and the only living thing on earth that is incompatible with the environment in which they live is humans.

In nature, there are lions, giraffes, fish, etc. living species do not make the environment they live in unlivable with their feces and urine. Other living species do not release plastics, greenhouse gases, nuclear waste, batteries into nature. They do not open the region to tourism by burning/cutting the trees. They do not build industrial facilities and apartments / estates / asphalt roads on fertile agricultural lands.

Nature somehow cleans the urine and feces of people in densely populated areas. But nature has a certain capacity to clean up all industrial waste.

The choice is human. To die as a result of our own waste, such as bacteria in a tube (fish in a small aquarium), or to live like a human.

With love,

Posted with STEMGeeks