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Bacterium - Dangerous animals you can't see!
What are bacteria?
Bacteria are organisms made up of just one cell. They are capable of multiplying by
themselves, as they have the power to divide. Their shapes vary, and doctors use these
characteristics to separate them into groups.
Bacteria exist everywhere, inside and on our bodies. Most of them are completely
harmless and some of them are very useful.
But some bacteria can cause diseases, either because they end up in the wrong place in
the body or simply because they are 'designed' to invade us.
Bacterium are much bigger than virus
Bacterium come in lots of different shapes
But they are all similar in form
The bacterium cell has no nucleus
A bacteria cell
Animal cell
Bacterium are cells that can move around.
Natures motor boat! The Flagella or whip spins
Around like a propeller and moves the bacterium
Through it's environment Usually the mucus in your lungs
or digestive track.
The rotor alone can operate at 6,000
to 17,000 rpm, but with the flagellar
filament attached usually only
reaches 200 to 1000 rpm. The
direction of rotation can be switched
almost instantaneously.
Pathogenic bacteria, the harmful kind, enter the human body from the air, water or food.
Once inside, these bacteria attach themselves to or invade specific cells in our respiratory
system, digestive tract or any open wound. There they begin to reproduce and spread while
using the human body as a source of their own nutrients and energy.
Bacterium Web Investigation
1 – What common diseases do bacterium cause?
2 – What sort of disease is Malaria?
3 – How did Jim Henson die?
4 – Find and describe the scariest bacterial disease you can find?
5 – Identity the type of bacterium that causes this disease
6 – What is the difference between a bacterium and a protozoa?