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How do viruses, bacteria, and protists impact our lives in both positive and negative ways? toc

=Harry=  Viruses, bacteria and protists can affect our life in both positive and negative ways because of what t can do, and what t can be used to do. For example, viruses can sometimes cause sicknesses to us humans. But, as we read in an article before, viruses can be used to empty out their genetic material and be inserted with special drugs to cure sicknesses without dangerous side effects. Bacteria, though t can help us digest our food, can also cause harmful diseases such as cholera and tuberculosis. Protists probably affect us the same way; I don't know much about them yet. This is a good bacteria. You want these. They can clean up oil spills, decompose decaying material into nitrogen for the plants, and they're also natural recyclers. This is a bad bacteria. They can give you diseases like cholera. You don't want that. So stay away. Angela: I like how you used something from the article, and adding in how the viruses can be helpful to cancer. i really like your pictures. Although bacteria probably doesn't look like that.... :] Harry T.: :D Back to top

= = =Hannah= Bacteria can be helpful to humans and also be very bad for them. Most people think that they are completely bad and that all they do is cause disease, but bacteria can be useful. An example is an oil spill. Bacteria can help clean up oil spills. Scientists are trying to find ways to use bacteria to clean up oil spills more effectively. The problem that they have is not that there is a lack of oil-eating bacteria, although they are not very common in unpolluted environments, this type of bacteria appears wherever the oil is. It is that the scientists do not know what kind of environment and food they need. But they have been very helpful in some bad oil spills. Another case that they have been useful is in digestion. The bacteria in our bodies help break down food that is too big or tough for our digestive system to break down. So as you can see, bacteria has been beneficial to humans in many ways.

http://www.technologyreview.com/ This is a picture of hydro-carbon eating cells that could help clean up oil slicks. JX: What you said about the stereotype is very true. I like the way you researched a bit on the oil spill eating bacteria. How do they put the bacteria on the beaches and water, and how do they eat the oil? Back to Top

=Paige=

Bacteria are very bad for you. They cause people to get diseases and people can get really sick from bacteria. Most people think they can’t be good for you at all, but they can also be very helpful to the earth. They clean up oil spills, they recycle, and they also help us make medicine. Not all bacteria are bad because bacteria are EVERYWHERE!! Bacteria impact our life because they are in a lot of food’s that we eat, foods such as cheese, yogurt, apple cider, buttermilk, pickles, olives, sour cream, etc… So if you like eating any of those foods, then you like eating bacteria. Louise: I like how your discriptions are short, but dont bacteria help make those foods you listed? I dont thing you are eating the bacteria, but you might be eating some bacteria in it. Harry: Your description was really good; you described it in a lot of detail. It surprised me a little, though. I forgot that yogurt contained bacteria. And don't forget a picture. Lyle: You explained how bacteria help us very well but you could of explained how the bacteria helps make the foods.

=Angela= Bacteria can be bad and good for you in many ways. When someone says bacteria, most people think about the bacteria that cause people to get diseases, and get sick. Most people don't think about how bacteria can be helpful. It is true that bacteria can cause deadly diseases, but MOST bacteria actually are helpful, or just harmless. Below, is a picture of bacterium that is able to eat the oil. This type of bacteria 'eats' the oil, and helps clean up oil spills. There are many different kinds of bacteria that can help clean up oil, and they all work together to get rid of the oil. Some of them digest the huge molecules of oil and create shorter molecules of oil, while other bacteria ‘eat’ these smaller chains of oil. The reason these bacteria are able to consume the oil, are because they live on the oil, and need the oil to survive. You can see that even though some bacteria is harmful to organisms, others can help the environment, and us. Oil Eating Bacteria www.jamstec.go.jp/ jamstec/bio1.gif Back to Top =Ryan= The virus is a parasite, it olny harms, it doesn’t help. The virus can cause a lot of sickness like cancer, aids, and many more. Right now theres no cure for viruses but there might soon be. The virus’s main objective was to never damage your cell but to just reproduce. Viruses could olny be helpful if we moddify the viruses, for example to put drugs inside of the head of the virus and take the genetic material out! There are over 9 trillion bacterias in the world, this might seem alarming but it isn’t, most of the bacteria mostly help. Bacteria can help by digesting the food that you can’t, clean oil, provide food, make gas, and many more. Bacteria can also be harmfull by causing diseases. There are cures for bacterias, for example anti-biotics can kill the bacterias. We don’t know much about protists yet but this is what I know: Protists mostly like near water. It can cause malaria.
 * Virus**
 * Bacteria**
 * Protist**

Back to Top http://www.flickr.com/photos/60295308@N00/110459408/sizes/o/ HIV VIRUS

Brandon: well ryan I wouldnt be all sure to just say they only harm because they dont always harm. But good picture it has nice detail of the HIV virus.

=Lyle= Bacteria is good for us in many ways. They help our body, they help us make foods, they help clean up oil spills, they help give plants nitrogen and many other things. But one very important thing they do is decomposition. They are the ones who recycle waste and make dead bodies vanish! The cells decompose stuff are called heterotrophic. These types of bacteria can break down complex molecules into energy using fermentation or respiration. Without these cells we wouldn't be able to recycle and we would have dead bodies all over the place!

All the bodies in this cemetery have been or are being decomposed by heterotrophic bacteria. Info source: http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/corpse_fauna/bacteria.htm Image source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/images/2007/07/31/radnor_street_cemetery_1_470x353.jpg

Hannah: I like your picture (kind of scary though) and your description was good. It was very short, and simple with easy words. You explained how bacteria helped through decomposition very clearly. Ryan: I didn't know that bodies get decomposed by bacteria, nice information. Mathieu: I also didn't know that bodies got decomposed by bacterias and also that fermentation and respiration was also used to decompose. Back to Top

=Brandon= Bacteria can be helpful to people in more ways then most people can think of. Without bacteria, we cant make tons of food that we eat today. Bacteria also help us do alot of environmental jobs. Like helping to clean up oil spills or, they help break down the soil into nutrients for the plants. But bacteria arent all good. They can cause many diseases and can get people sick. But scientists and others were smart enough to come up with ways to fight off the bacteria, like using antibiotics. Which will kill the bacteria. Thats one of the reasons why alot more people arent sick.

Image: "good/helpful bacteria" this is the kind of bacteria that you want. Its that bacteria that is helpful to others and yourself. http://nutritionresearchcenter.org/healthnews/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bifido_lge.jpg [|Back to top] David: How do the antibiotics work? and how about viruses and protists? Don't antibiotics kill all good bacteria and bad ones, and I thought antibiotics were treatments, not a prevention.

=JX=

Our world is filled with viruses, bacteria, and protists. They can all help us in their own unique way. Viruses, as we have read earlier, can be "emptied" out to make an empty box, where we can put medicine in. Using this technique, we can transfer medicine more efficiently, and use less of it. I don't know very much about protists, but they are all eukaryotes and like to live near water. Bacteria are pretty special. They can help us in many ways, like decomposing dead organisms, cleaning up oil spills, and digesting food our body can't. I think the last one is pretty special since we cannot live without it. These special bacteria can not only digest the food our body cannot, but amazingly, they also take up space that harmful bacteria could be using. They fight for the special space in your intestines and digestive system. They might also be able to fight bacteria! I think this is pretty amazing, since they are just simple bacteria that live in us, digesting large molecules our bodies cannot.

This is a picture of of bacteria in our stomachs. It is the same one that Brandon has... http://www.nutritionresearchcenter.org/healthnews/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/bifido_lge.jpg Back to top David: JX...This is not a comment but I think you Deleted mine...I can tell by the history...Oh no...I have to type it on again! = = =David= Bacteria, viruses and protists could impact our lives in bothpositive and negetive ways. Bacteria help digest food, clean oil spills, Viruses could be used to carry drugs to help fight off cancer and Protists (not sure) could be a food source(?) for organisms. Bacteria can can cause diseases like cholera, protists can cause malaria and Bcateria could cause 'Hepatitis B'. Hepatitis B is an infection of the liver caused by the Hepatitis B Virus, Toxin, heavy alchohol is an aspect of causing this infection. This virus is spread through body fluids, sharing needles and more. Symptoms include: jaudince, loss of apetite, fever, yellow eye etc. The virus could be prevented using the 'Hepatitis B Vaccine', you probably had it before, you get 3-4 shots over a 6-month period. If you had the vaccine, you are most likely to not get the disease but if you do get it, there currently isn't a perfectly safe treatment. But doctors recommend rest, adequate nutrition and fluids, some patients might be hospitalized. As you can see, bacteria, viruses and protists could help us and harm us...Keep Healthy! Image: HBV (HEpatitis B Virus) This virus causes Hepatitis B...but it could be prevented by having the 'Hepatitis B Vaccine' Picture: [] Information: [] [] Daniel R.: I don't think protists are much of a food source. Although only other protists eat protists, us humans may come to a time where we have to resort to eating them.

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Louise

Viruses, bacteria, and protists can play a major part in everyone's lives. Some things are positive, and some are negative. The negatives of viruses are they cause diseases. They can cause the common cold, influenza, HIV/AIDS, and much more sicknesses. How a virus works is, it invades a host cell, plants its genetic material in it and multiplies till it explodes the host cell, making it sick. Viruses are mostly harmful, but scientists are now working on a way to transport drugs to a certain place in the body. It works by taking the genetic material out, and inserting medicine into the shell of it and then sending it to the area of disease. A bacteruim is also harmful and helpful. It causes many diseases also; such as pertussis, tuberculosis, the bubonic plauge, and more. It can be helpful in many ways though. It helps cleans up oil spills by eating it up, makes yogurt using fermentation, and helps digest food that our system can't. There is actually a virus called a bacteriophage that attacks and destroys bacteria, which can be helpful when the bacteria is harmful. Protists are a subject that we haven't learned much about yet, but I do know that it causes diseases such as malaria. Picture of bacteriophage attacking bacteria []

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=Daniel R.= Apart from all the negative aspects of viruses, bacteria, and protists, there are also many good uses for them. For example, scientists are now realizing that viruses can have a huge positive impact on our lives. First, viruses have been very helpful to research. Scientists are using them to study molecular and cellular biology. From these researches, they have been able to manipulate viruses into injecting a new gene into a cell, and studying how the cell reacts or what new substance it could create. So far, they have created virotherapy which uses viruses to treat various diseases by being able to target down specific cells. Finally, scientists have been able to manipulate viruses even more. By directing their evolution process, scientists have been able to use them in materials science (involves the study of matter and its application in science and engineering) to help organize materials that can only be measured in nanometers. Using these viruses, scientists are now beginning to experiment in creating minuscule technologies such as a nanoscale breadboard (used in molecular electronics). This is how viruses can have a positive aspect on our life. This picture shows an example of what scientists can do with viruses to create something of such small structure. Cite: http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/NanotechFly.jpg Back to top Josephine: oh my gosh! that was amazing. Is this technology available in China? What does that fly do?

Josephine Microbes such as viruses, bacteria, and some protists can cause serious diseases like SARS, plague, and malaria; but they are as well helpful to human. Bacteria and viruses both invade your cells, they multiply/ reproduce quickly which makes it hard to treat the disease. (viruses don't have a treatment but you can prevent them with vaccine) Viruses multiply by inserting genetic material into your cell (host), and use it to make copies of themselves. The new viruses produced can sometimes explode the host cell because there are too much of them. HIV/ AIDS, are well- know viruses that breaks your T- cells (immune cells), the effectiveness of your immune system will slowly decrease and you will die because your immune system can't fight against other diseases that invade your body afterward. Bacteria can multiply every 20 minutes in good environments. Your body is a good environment for them, and imagine that there be 128 bacteria after 160 minutes (2 hours 40 minutes!). It will be really dangerous if it was a pathogen.

How a virus can be helpful

The virus that Danial R talked about in the second line I think was Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus. Scientists actually used it to find unknown substances in wheat and how a wheat cell worked by injecting new genes into the Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus, and observe the change and reaction in wheat cell. I think they actually found a way to make wheats grow up in 4-5 days (thats how many days it took to sprout...) instead of 6-9 months by inserting wheat with callus (some plant cells which a whole plant can be regrown...)

(I still need to add something)

Image below: (top) wheat curl mite, transmitting agent of wheat streak mosaic virus, (bottom) healthy leaf -> infected leaf



Image Source: [] Source: [|http://][|findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3741/is_12_48/ai_68864545]

=Mathieu= Bacteria’s are very bad in a lot of different ways but they can also be good. One kind of bad bacteria is the ones that cause you to have diarrhea. Sometimes as you eat bad foods, or something that has been infected with a bacteria, it cause’s diarrhea problems. It is often the case, however sometimes it is because of an excess of sun, fruit or alcohol. Sometimes the diarrhea is light but sometimes it is very heavy. Salmonella hits chickens and eggs, it can cause to diarrhea and other things. It is a simple little bacteria that suddenly went all bad and hurt different things and people.

This is a picture of a salmonella bacteria. Back to top