Page 48 - The Microworld Miracle

Bacteria Perform Photosynthesis
We generally look at bacteria as germs that reproduce very
quickly in our bodies or in food that has spoiled. Yet they also pos-
sess a great many features essential to life and with the organelles
inside them, perform exceedingly important activities to maintain

the equilibrium on Earth.
Bacteria play an enormously important role in supplying
countless vital elements, from the air we breathe to the food we eat,
and from the views around us to the antibiotics we use. In fact, ev-
ery bacterium is an expert chemist, using nature as a laboratory.
Chemical formulae are foreign to most of us, and indeed, it is im-
possible to understand chemical reactions without special training.

Bacteria also deserve respect and amazement, for performing reac-
tions of vital concern to our lives.
Even if we are even unaware of it, a chemical laboratory that
works constantly and maintains our lives enfolds all of nature. This
laboratory's most important activity is to provide oxygen and food
for living things, and then to clean up waste
products or produce new beneficial
products that living things can
use. During the course of this

difficult and complex duty,
THE MICROWORLD MIRACLE Antibiotics, which can
many complicated chemi-
cal reactions are repeat-

sometimes be of vital impor-
tance in curing human dis-
eases, are also produced by

46 bacteria.