Bacteria: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

A “good bacteria” lies across its psychiatrist’s couch and says “Nobody understands me!!” Sounds like the beginning of a joke and if I were cleverer, it could have been one if this scenario were possible; it would probably have some truth in it.  

When people think of bacteria, they associate it with the 3 D’s: Dirt, Disease and Death. Though disease and death can be caused by bacteria, not all bacteria cause disease and death. Bacteria are often mistaken for viruses, which are not the same thing. Bacteria are independent, basically supporting and maintaining their own environment similar to the cells of the body. Viruses are dependent, multiplying by infecting already existing cells, changing their DNA structure thereby harming the cell. In short not all bacteria cause damage but all viruses do. 

ALL LIVING ORGANISMS NEED SOME FORM OF BACTERIA TO LIVE! 

There are three main families of bacteria which spread out into subsets, these f amilies and their claim to fame are:  

BACILLI: found in the human intestine; as a pathogen can be responsible for salmonella, whooping cough and E. coli

COCCI: mostly considered a pathogen to humans, can be responsible for staphinfections, strep throat, food poisoning, toxic shock syndrome and pneumonia.

SPIRILLA: Syphilis and Lyme disease can be a result when this pathogen comes to visit.

 are forms of bacteria at their worse but their subsets can be found in the human body, doing good things and making up for the evil deeds of their parents. Forty million beneficial bacteria can be found in 1 milliliter (10^-3) of saliva. That is smaller than the head of a pin. Keeping this in mind, research has found that it is not putting an unwashed hand in your mouth (though I wouldn’t advise it) that could cause a cold but rubbing your eyes. Your eyes have a lot less bacteria that could help kill the “cold bug.”

THE GOOD GUYS:

Bacteria help us digest food, produce vitamins and live in spaces that pathogens (bad bacteria) would use. Here are a few common ones:

Lactobacillus bulgaricus: Turns milk into yummy yogurt.

Lactic Acid Bacteria: Helpful in the transport of the oral vaccine for anthrax from the mouth to the small intestines where it is needed

Ruminoccoccus: Helps herbivores to be able to digest cellulose and grass necessary for their nourishment.

I could go on and on...but I won’t. Think of bacteria as Clint Eastwood, riding into a mining town on horseback, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and sometimes even ugly. It all depends on the script.

Image: biotech-weblog.com

http://www.actionbioscience.org/biodiversity/wassenaar.html

Are you ‘SCURD” of the Dark?? Part 3 of 3

3. NIGHT ATTACKS – Europe in the Middle Ages would have been referenced as a class 3 on the darkness scale when the sun set. To visit one’s nearest neighbor it would be necessary to travel through the moors many miles in on the darkest of nights. Europeans of this time had a mortal fear of traveling at night and with good reason. Nighttime was the perfect environment for highwaymen, thieves and murderers. This circumstance brought about the phrase “safety in numbers,” because if one was in the predicament of having to travel along the dark dangerous roads of Europe in the Middle Ages, they had better bring a friend or two. Even if you were fortunate enough not meet with an attack on your journey, the creaking of the cages hung from trees that contained apprehended highway robbers could be enough to make you wish you had stayed home. Robbers, etc., that were caught were placed in these cages until they starved to death, so it was no rare occurrence to hear the cry and wails of some poor soul in need of a sandwich. If you weren’t robbed and your journey was quiet with no pleads for mercy or death rattles, there was still cause for worry...you could always fall into a ditch. I will not fail to mention that the woods and moors in the pitch of night are considered arduous and dangerous terrain.

4. FIRE – Long ago before the advent of the light bulb, the main and only source of seeing your way through the dark was fire. This is one of the reasons that deadly home fires mainly occurred at night. In medieval times more than one fifth of children were killed in fires. The result for refusing to help put out a fire was to have your head cut off. This may seem like a harsh penalty today with your local fire department available but in a time where one fire could wipe out a whole village...well, I’m not saying its right to behead someone not toting a pail of water, but I understand.

The History Channel “Afraid of the Dark,” aired 2010

Are you " SCURD" of the Dark??? Part 2 of 3

In part one of the “Scared of the Dark” series; we explored the physiological aspects of fear. What happens when something scares us sets off a cascade of activities in our bodies with the end resulting in running, hiding, screaming or maybe…fighting?

In part two of the series we will discuss some factors that make us so afraid of the dark. Some of these factors are beliefs and practices that have been handed down from generation to generation and are still as formidable today as they were thousands of years ago.

First let’s determine the degrees of darkness. On a scale of 1-9, where class 1 is the darkest night possible (the Australian outback would be considered a class 1), and a class 9 would be the skyline of NYC at night (well lit). In the continental United States, there is no class of darkness lower than a class 2. In order to get to a class 1 area, you would have to sail 300 miles into the ocean past the curvature of the earth and maybe, just maybe, you will be surrounded by a class 1 night. Even in the middle of the ocean, engulfed in utter darkness, you would still only be able to observe 1% of the stars Galileo had seen when he roamed the earth.

What are some of the fears and worries about darkness that haunted our ancestors so long ago and still threaten us today? To answer this question we are going to have to take a virtual trip across time and seas to strange and exotic lands. Ready, close your eyes, here we go. The following are eight origins to reasons we are afraid of the dark:

East Africa – 10,000 years ago, darkness of night = class 2 (one of the darkest regions on earth). What fear plague the people of East Africa when darkness falls??

1. FEAR OF BEING EATEN ALIVE – 10,000 years ago, lions, hyenas and leopards could be found in abundance in Eastern Africa. Being these predatory animals hunt at night and there were and are few places to hide in the African terrain, it is no wonder that more than 100 Africans a year are killed by lions. In early times, 6-10% of humans became food to these predators.

Jerusalem – 100 AD, darkness of night = class 4. What goes bump to the Israelis when the sun goes down??

2. Could it be…SATAN – Before 100 AD the idea of Satan was as abstract the Easter Bunny, but something changed and Satan became a physical being…a physical being that was most active at night. People of this time believed that Satan stalked the night. This was a problem because artificial lighting i.e. lanterns and candles were items only the rich could afford, so only the rich were safe from Satan’s presence. The poor improvised with rags soaked in bacon fat, then lit for a make shift, short lived means of light. It was this solution or shaking in the dark waiting to hear Satan’s hooves scraping on the dirt floors of their cottages.

To be continued…

The History Channel “Afraid of the Dark,” aired 2010

Image of Satan: forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Are you " SCURD" of the Dark??? Part 1 of 3

Fear of darkness is as old as darkness itself and as varied as the people who are afraid. Everyone can remember a time (I want to write in childhood but I still experience this) when you dread going into that dark, dank basement or having to shut the closet door before going to sleep in fear of the blackness and whatever maybe waiting…inside. Fear of the dark is one of the few things that are both rational and irrational, sometimes at the same time. Being in the dark makes one vulnerable to their environment, there is not doubt about this, but are the things to which you are vulnerable real or imagined? This is a good question but never the less irrelevant. Fear whether real or just the workings of an imagination is an actuality, handed down from generation to generation, which makes it timeless. Before we consider why we are frightened of the dark, let’s review how we fear.

1. It all starts in the brain (but don’t most things), in a section called the Hippocampus. The hippocampus forms our day to day experiences into memories. These memories are then sent to the amydgala.

2. The amygdala is a “store house” for good and bad memories (created by the hippocampus), experiences and emotions. The amydgala takes the stimuli from our real world information to our environment and sends signals to other areas of the body, resulting in appropriate emotional and physical responses. Physical responses which occur due to amydgala signaling are: dilated pupils, increased heartbeat, hyperventilation, nausea, bladder restricts, bowels slow down and an increase in blood pressure. On the “dark side” of amaydgala’s work, this is also the starting point of phobias. Phobias can start in this section of the brain because the amydgala operates unconsciously, so it can be prone to errors in its interpretation of the information it collects.

3. Signals from the amydgala reach the hypothalamus and triggers changes in the hormones the body produces. These changes get the body ready to take action in response to the emotions stimulated: “fight or flight,” crying, laughing, or for the purposes of this topic, muscle contraction so you can run.

Now that you understand how you are afraid physiologically, the next two posts will discuss why you are afraid. These should be much more interesting to the folks who couldn’t care less about brain functions.

Carter, R., Aldridge, S., Page, M., Parker, S. “The Human Brain Book,” 2009

Image of hypothalamus:

http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=10068

The History Channel “Afraid of the Dark,” aired 2010

Mummies_Not just an EgyptianThing

When most people think of mummies they picture ancient Egyptian pharaohs and pyramids but the truth is that man-made mummification practices where in effect 7,000 years prior to the Egyptians. In South America, the Chinchorros, a fishing tribe from the Andes of Chile were the true forefathers of mummifying their deceased. The Chinchorros mummified all of the tribe, not just royalty, unlike the ancient Egyptians.

Image: _{http://cogitz.com/2009/09/04/bog-bodies-preserved-corpses/}
We know from watching CSI that mummification does not have to be a man-made process but can occur naturally. “Conservative Transformation Phenomena” or “Spontaneous Mummification” can occur when a cadaver is left in the following environment: Well ventilated, Dry/dehydration with heat, Dehydration with freezing temperatures.

Various factors cause some bodies to mummify easier in natural conditions, some of these factors are: Age (newborns mummify easier), Gender (females), Cause of death (arsenic and Potassium cyanide poisoning, large hemorrhages and prolonged antibiotic administration before death.) _{http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/mummies/print}

Those are the mummification why(s) but what is the biological and physiological processes that occur you are probably asking yourselves...or not. After death, within a few hours these processes occur:

• Autolysis (a stage where organs containing digestive enzymes (the intestines, for example) begin to digest themselves.
• Putrefaction (the breakdown of organic matter by bacteria. In normal, circumstances, this happens about three days after death. Within a few months, the body is reduced to a skeleton. _{http://science.howstuffworks.com/mummy.htm}

“In hotter, more humid environments, this process is accelerated, because bacteria reproduce rapidly in such conditions. In colder, drier conditions, the process is slowed, because bacteria need heat and water to thrive. If the conditions are cold or dry enough, or if there isn't enough oxygen, the environment is so harsh that few bacteria can survive. In this case, the body will not fully decompose, possibly for thousands of years. “ http://science.howstuffworks.com/mummy.htm
There is a special circumstance of mummies known as the “Bog Mummies” found in parts of Europe. These mummies break the rules because they are found in muddy, watery areas. So, a corpse can become mummified in water...How does this happen???

Bodies placed in a bog (soft, muddy ground) are near saltwater and peat moss. The peat moss in these bogs collects the salt from the air and releases acid into the bog water. The water then permeates throughout the cells in the corpse.

“Because of the acid, bacteria cannot survive in these bogs, so the bodies do not decompose as they normally would. If there is enough acid in the water the bones of the corpse will disintegrate, leaving only the skin and hair. Calverous bogs will do the opposite and leave only the skeleton. It is believed that only bodies that are dumped in the bogs when the water is frigid, will be preserved.”

Image:http://echostains.wordpress.com/tag/tollund-man/

"The Tollund Bog Man.”

The Tollund Bog Man was: Found in 1950 in the peat bogs of Scandinavia (Denmark), Estimated to have died in 350 B.C., was so well preserved, the contents of stomach revealed he had his last meal 12 hours before death (a soup), thought to have died at the age of 40, in the spring time (seeds eaten only harvested in spring). No one is sure how this man died but they have guessed that he was probably hung (the rope around his neck, not a scientific observation but obvious none the less). http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/mummies/print. So this was a brief and informal introduction to mummies...not just for Egyptians.

References:

_{http://www.techrepublic.com /article/geek-trivia-fathers-of-the-mummy/6166465}

_{http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/mummies/print}

_{http://cogitz.com/2009/09/04/bog-bodies-preserved-corpses/}

_{http://science.howstuffworks.com/mummy.htm}