What are bacteria?
Q: What are bacteria?
A: Bacteria are very small organisms that are prokaryotic microorganisms. They do not have a nucleus and most have no organelles with membranes around them, but they do have a cell wall and DNA.
Q: How big are bacteria?
A: Most bacteria are so tiny they can only be seen through a microscope.
Q: Are bacteria unicellular organisms?
A: Yes, bacteria are made up of one cell, so they are a kind of unicellular organism.
Q: When did bacteriology begin?
A: The founder of bacteriology was German biologist Ferdinand Cohn (1828-1898). He published the first biological classification of bacteria based on their appearance.
Q: Where do most bacteria live?
A: Most bacteria live in the ground or in water, but many also live inside or on the skin of other organisms, including humans.
Q: How many bacterial cells exist compared to human cells?
A: There are about as many bacterial cells as human cells in each of our bodies.
Q: What role do some types of bacteria play in everyday life? A: Some types of bacteria help us digest food (gut flora) and others we use in factories to make cheese and yogurt.
