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How do viruses, bacteria, and protists impact our lives in both positive and negative ways? =J-ren=

Bacteria,viruses and Protists can help and harm us because there are many bacterias that speed up our digestion, help decay corpses and even clean up oil spills. but there is some bacteria that can make us horribly ill like the bacteria that can cause strep throat or leprosy. Some viruses can help fight cancer and most don't even do any damage to our bodies but some can make us sick and even kill us. Some protists like //Naegleria fowleri  //that eat away at animals brains. and that is how V,B,P can help and hurt animals or humans. This is a picture of a Virus

=Zachary= Bacteria, viruses and protists can impact our lives either positively or negatively.

It effect our lives positively by contributing to advances in health. Most of our medicine comes from bacteria. They help make things we humans can't do on our own. Also, viruses can provide small doses of medicine instead of injecting large ammount that can make you weak. It also helps us in our environment becausse, bacteria contributed to the production of oxygen in our planet so long ago and they can help clean up spill that we make. It makes our lives easier. Protists also use photosynthesis to produce oxygen. Bacteria can also make our foods that we have like cheese and yogurt.

However, they can effect our lives in a negative way by making us sick. All three bacteria, protists and viruses can make us ill. For example, the virus can enter our body and cause the AIDS illness, bacteria can cause an illness from food poisoning or spoilage and protist can infect pregnant women using toxoplasmosis from the protist Toxoplasma gondii. Most diseases can be fatal to us and cause death in some cases.

The reason why I chose this picture is because, many people go to hospitals because people are so sick that they need to be treated to professionals. The reason why I chose this picture is because the fact that bacteria dumped oxygen in our atmosphere long time ago helped us to thrive in this world and if they didn't do that, life for us wouldn't exist! [|www.flickr.com/photos/44124366667@N01/57343] www.flickr.com/photos/21936447@N04/2744217176

Jonathan-Very true about the viruses, they can be made to help, but they are not actually meant to harm either. Their main purpose is to reproduce, not kill cells. Back To Top

=Anthony= Bacteria, viruses and protists can impact our lives both in positive and negative ways. For example bacteria could be used to make medicines, fuel, cheese, yoghurt, clean oil spills, decompose trash and give Earth oxygen. But, it could also be harmful because it multiplies rapidly and spreads diseases. A virus could be used to cure specific diseases because of its unique ability but most of them damage cells causing us to feel weak. In conclusion, bacteria, viruses and protists can really impact our life in both negative and positive ways.

This is a picture of cheese. I chose this picture because bacteria makes it. www.flickr.com/photos/35423169@N00/148266362

Jonathan- Don't forget about the protists! They affect us too, though maybe not in such a large way. Back To Top =Rachel C= Viruses, bacteria and protists impact our lives in both positive and negative ways, they can do positive things to our lives like cleaning the oil spills, make food, make medicines and more that was said above. They do negative things to our lives too. They cause diseases that can affect this whole world. So, since all the short facts are basically listed in the previous posts, I will be talking specifically about what negative things that viruses and bacteria impact in our lives. Firstly, viruses cause diseases in all organisms and diseases like influenza, aids, rabies, respiratory syncytial disease, rhinovirus infections, chicken pox, measles, mumps, yellow fever, hepatitis A, B, viral fevers and more are all caused by viruses. These sicknesses can sometimes cause people to die or get very ill. Bacteria can cause diseases like strep throat, fever, penumococcal pneumonia, staphylococcal, food poisoning and more. These diseases might have an antibiotic or vaccine to prevent the disease from happening or stop the disease from getting worse, but at times it can kill you if it isn’t treated well. In conclusion, viruses, bacteria and protests impact our lives in both positive and negative ways, they can either have us stay healthy and alive or sick and even die. - I chose this picture of a boy with mumps is because in this picture you can see what a disease can do to a human.

http://www.idph.state.il.us/images/mumps.jpg

Jonathan- That's a lot of diseases! But sometimes the helpful parts almost equal the harmful parts. There is also the Black Death that you didn't mention. Good depth though! Back To Top =Belle Z= I agree with you Rachel C., mumps and other diseases can do a lot to our bodies and they are caused by bacteria and viruses. But I think that specifically mumps, they are mostly developed in rural areas where there isn't much medical care? Like AIDS or HIV can affect all the people around us and really impact on our society.
 * Luke-** What exactly are mumps? I googled it up and I have found out that the symptons of mumps includes swollen salivary glands, fever, and difficulty swallowing. Mumps are usually considered a mild disease among children but can be much more serious among adults, I'm not sure if 12 yrs old count as adults or children. Aren't salivary glands located where your lymph nodes are? I don't know.

Viruses, bacteria and protists can impact our lives in positive and negative ways. They can cause us to be sick, and some can even make us die. Once a bad virus or bacteria gets into your body, they can keep multiplying and make more of the same. Also, viruses and some bacteria are not effective against antibiotics. By now, you would have a nasty image of bacteria and viruses in your head, but to tell you, they aren't all bad for you. Scientists are now using gene therapy to use the virus as a messenger to deliver the genetic material to cells that need it. Bacteria can help you digest, can recycle, can clean-up oil spills, can make fuel (methane), can make medicine like insulin, can make food like cheese, yogurt, kimchee, olives, pickles and many others. www.flickr.com/photos/21947880@N00/2007128465 I added this picture because I wanted to state that bacteria can be good. They are the ones who clean up after our messes like what your mom does when you are young. If we didn't have bacteria, we would have dead bodies lying around and nobody would clean-up the oil spills and many animals will die like what you see in this picture.

Jonathan- Yes, they can be helpful, but sometimes deadly. And it is interesting how bacteria can make so many things (you forgot cider). Overall well done! Back To Top =RYAN= here is the video i made in flash, its quite short so il write a bit. bacteria can clean many things provide us with food and others. i find most interesting is that they can harm us and help us. helping digest food is one thing that they do. Viruses such as malaria can spread everywhere quite quickly raising the death count. in africa this is sort of common. malaria is spread my mosquitos therefore the disease cannot really be avoidded depending on where you are at the moment.



Jonathan- Somehow, I can't see your video. Back to Top =Connie= Great job Rachel! Yellow fever, mumps, measles and chicken pox, and the other diseases you listed are all caused by viruses and bacteria. These diseases are usually spread in less developed countries, where there is not a lot of medical care, and a lot of people get infected. Other epidemics like malaria, pneumonia, and small pox are also caused by viruses and bacteria, and these diseases can have a huge impact on the population. Protists can cause deadly diseases as well. Amebiasis, malaria, and giardiasis (can cause diarrhea and abdominal pains) are all diseases caused by protozoan parasites. Bacteria can help clean up oil spills. Some bacteria literally “eat” oil and other wastes. The bacteria consume the oil, digest them, and produce harmless substances as waste. Bacteria can also be used for pollution prevention. Some types of special bacteria can clean up the methylene chloride in industrial waste water. They convert the chemical to water, carbon dioxide, and salt, making it harmless. There are also vast numbers of bacteria that live in landfills. These bacteria act as decomposers and can break down solid wastes. Scientists sometimes study land fills to observe which types of bacteria can break down wastes the fastest. Researchers are trying to breed these types of bacteria and produce an army of decomposers that can be applied to landfills. This is how bacteria can affect our lives in a positive way. This is a picture of a bioreactor. Bacteria are placed in this, along with industrial waste water, so the bacteria can clean up the methylene chloride. []
 * Luke-** I thought malaria is "protist-based".

Jonathan- You covered just about everything! Except that you should also talk about how viruses can be helpful. Good job though! Back to Top =Jonathan= In different situations, bacteria, viruses and protists can be both harmful and helpful to mankind. Like Zachary and Anthony said, bacteria make many things that are useful, but not only that, think about where else bacteria can be found. IN US! There are millions and millions and millions of bacteria in our digestive tract. We may not see them, but they are actually helping us a lot more than we think. They help break down complex substances that we ourselves can't break down into sugars or other substances that we can. They also help to keep bad bacteria from attacking our digestive tract. It is one thing that we take for granted, which we owe to the good bacteria. But there are also the common bad, disease causing bacteria such as the strep throat bacteria and the tuberculosis one, which kill lots of people every year. Viruses have always given us the impression of horrible sicknesses and robot-like killing machines, but that isn’t it’s actual purpose. Is only purpose is to reproduce, but sometimes doing that kills our cells, causing sicknesses. But recently, scientists have discovered that in the near future, viruses may be able to kill only deadly cells (like cancerous ones) or inject helpful genetic material in some cells. Like Connie said, protists do cause many dangerous diseases like malaria, but they can also be helpful, such as algae, which provide us with some oxygen. This proves that all these tiny things affect us in both positive and negative ways. This picture shows where some bacteria live in you (your intestines and digestive tract)

 Image: '[|kitchen wall hanging. from room service.]' www.flickr.com/photos/71287754@N00/1516691231

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=Rachel L.= Viruses, bacteria and protists impact our lives lot of different ways either negative or positive. They can help us make medicines, keep our body motivated, clean oil spills, make food that we eat. They also do a lot of harm to our body for example some of the viruses or bacteria can kill us like chicken pox, mumps, AIDS, HIV, black death, measles, yellow fever, malaria etc. There is a lower chance for little kids dying from chicken pox compared to adults; it’s more risky for adults. But not so bad sicknesses like a fever or strep throat that you can get from bacteria; you can probably make it better/cure it from having some antibiotics or vaccines, medicines. Bacteria and viruses can help you and may harm you many different ways. Below is a picture of malaria. 

Back to top =Luke= I sort of answered EQ2 in my response to EQ1, but oh well, I'll do it again. Viruses, bacterias, and protists can have a huge impact on our lives(both good or bad). Let's start with the good impacts. The word "Bacteria" and "Virus" is often misconcepted in people's minds, the image that these words conjure in most of THEIR minds are tiny bug or robot-like organisms that causes diseases and laughs at you while you suffer from it. It is somewhat true, but surprisingly, most viruses and bacteria are either totally useless or beneficial(is that a word?)to us. Let's take bacteria for example, it doesn't just gives you strep throat and gives you a jolly good time dealing with it, it does much more. There is more bacteria in your stomach than population in the world!The bacteria in your stomach helps you digest and break down food that your stomach alone can't decompose, without these bacteria in our digestive track, we would probably be constipated everyday. Bacteria can also make several different foods such as cheese, soy sauce(possibly), sauerkraut, yoghurt, olives, kimchi(I'm not sure) and many more. As I had said before, bacteria are nature's decomposers and "eats away" dead cells and keeps the world clean(cleans chemical/oil spills), without bacteria we would have dead seagulls floating in the middle of the ocean in a blob of oil. Viruses are only here to reproduce, no worries. Most of the time a virus just replicates itself, exits the host cell, and goes on with their life, I admire them. As **Anthony** had brought up earlier before, viruses can actually be reprogrammed to cure disease such as cancer!! Vaccines are made from dead viruses. Unfortunately, bacteria and viruses CAN cause different disease ranging from mild to highly contagious. For now we could fight off bacterial disease with antibiotics, but not for long. Because a small number of bacteria is now resistant to antiobiotics, and eventually they will reproduce with either binary fission or conjugation and create more of themselves, also resistant against antiobiotics. There is currently no cure for alot of viral diseases, although there is something called antivirals that can actually defeat viruses(I don't know either). These disease, if not treated or soothed, can often times KILL you!! -This is a picture of a streptococcus bacteria, which is the bacteria responsible for strep throat.
 * http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigyip/3148312219/**

Jeff

I think bacteria and viruses affect our lives in both positive and negative ways because they can deliver chemotherapy drugs to cancerous cells, help us digest, etc. I think in general society, the names 'bacteria' and 'virus' conjures up a bad image in people's minds, such as disease, death, and suffering. However, they probably do not understand that bacteria are used to make cheese, and various other dairy products such as yogurt. Some people even eat bacteria to aid their digestion! It's much of the same story with viruses. I think viruses are incredibly interesting because of their abilities to target specific cells, and how they can perform so many tasks without using energy. Now, with new technology, we can manufacture viruses which can attack specific cancer cells and hopefully cure the disease. I think viruses are amazing. However, they can also be very harmful when out of control. Almost all epidemics in the world, other than malaria and a few others, are caused by either bacteria or virus. Think about it. AIDS, smallpox, flu, TB, polio, etc. Also, many, many people have been killed by viruses and bacteria. However, I think humans can develop the technology to harness the power of viruses and bacteria and use it in good ways.

E. coli culture.

=Emilie= Viruses, bacteria, and protists affect life in both positive and negative ways. Let’s use bacteria as an example. Some bacteria cause dangerous, sometimes deadly diseases. Some of these diseases are Lyme disease, Strep Throat, Tetanus, and Tuberculosis. However, bacteria can also be helpful. Bacteria can also help with our digestion, cleaning up oil spills, and converting nitrogen into something usable for plants to use. They can help make the fuel methane, medicine, and food such as cheese, yogurt, apple cider, olives, sauerkraut, pickles, and buttermilk. The reason they can help make food is because bacteria break up the food’s chemicals creating a new food but that is also why a lot of foods spoil. I chose the following pictures because it shows the difference between what bacteria can do to food. In one it shows how pickles look edible whereas the moldy bread does not. [] []

=Kate= I agree with all of you guys how viruses, bacteria and protists can affect our lives in both positive and negative ways. Like you guys all said, they can both help us and harm us. Like how they can cause humans to get sick and kill us, but they are also in our foods, help us decompose dead things,and clean up. And by the way, wow, Rachel C, that's a //lot// of diseases! What mostly interests me about viruses, bacteria, and protists, are how they help us in so many ways when we always picture the gross and nasty sickness every time we hear their names. So I did a little web surfing and found out some pretty interesting stuff. Only certain types bacteria can eat up oil, and now scientists are trying to figure out ways to alter the bacteria so it can eat up different types of oil as well. After a huge leak of petroleum oil a couple years ago, scientists took samples of bacteria from the leaked petroleum oil on beaches and began to study them. A huge variety of bacteria were found, ones that ate at a tremendous rate, and ones that worked away at it slow and steady. It appeared to the scientists that all these bacteria worked together in reducing the amount of oil. Some would digest the long chains of hydrocarbon molecules, and shorten those chains, and other bacteria would eat the shorter chains of hydrocarbon molecules. When the bacteria stop working as a team, and the oil is gone, all that's left is water and carbon dioxide. For a few years scientists studied this in controlled areas in their labs, and now its helping clean up oil spills outside especially on places such as beaches!

I chose this picture because it shows a bunch of similar bacteria together in one area, who seem to be working together to take over the area. Not like the oil-eating bacteria are trying to clean something up, but both bacteria work together as a team to complete a goal. []

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Ethan

Viruses, bacteria, and protist can help us and harm us. Bacteria help to produce certain foods and chemicals. They also help to digest food. They can cause diseases that can be fatal. Viruses can destroy harmful bacteria. They may also be able to be used to destroy cancerous cells. Some viruses don't harm or help as with some bacteria. Protists can sometimes cause diseases. Most diseases strengthen the immune system. a bacteriophage, a virus that kills bacteria. source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajc1/350398704/

=Royce=

I want to build on what Ethan said in the post above me. I want to talk how viruses can help people, many people can't think of many ways that viruses can help people, but they can, with new techniques to modify their ability to get into cells can cure many diseases modern medicine can't cure. MIT, or Massachusetts Institute of Technology, itself used viruses, and genetically changed them to become what they want. Diseases such as MRSA (a bacteria resistant to most common antibiotics) have taken over hospitals, where they thrive by infecting people with lowered immune systems. The genetic modification of the bacteriophage they had used enabled them to act like the HIV virus, which infects the immune system of humans, but the virus transfers that effect into destroying the bacteria's self-defense system. Since their is no way that bacteria can really defend itself to attacks without their SOS system, which comes into effect to heal the bacteria after an antibiotic injures the DNA. Some bacteria selected by natural selection manage to survive with some advantage it has over its other bacterial counterparts. This phage that MIT has come up with maims the SOS system harmless, thus letting the antibiotics sweep in and kill most, if not all, the bacteria, this can therefore cause a defect in MRSA's or any other antibiotic resistant bacteria's defence system versus antibiotics. Their are also many other things that they have done with viruses, such as create viruses that destroy biofilms (places where bacteria thrive) and also have viruses that create batteries! The possibilities of viruses seem to never end.

For more info on MIT's virus research go to this sight [] and search up viruses.

[] This is the image of the bacteria at work, and the one of the scientists that created the helpful virus mentiones aboved

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