microorganism

Also known as microbe, micro-organism, microorganisms, micro-organisms, microbes, microbial

thumb|upright=1.35|A Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies|cluster of [[Escherichia coli bacteria magnified 10,000 times]]

AI overview

A microorganism is a living thing too small to see with the naked eye, such as the bacteria shown here magnified 10,000 times. Microorganisms matter because they are found everywhere in nature and have major effects on human health, food production, and the environment.

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Wikidata facts

Image: E coli at 10000x, original.jpg

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Commons category: Microorganisms
Unicode character: 🦠
WordLift URL: data.wordlift.io/wl01714/entity/microorganisms.html

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~31 min read

Article

33 sections

Contents

Discovery
Ancient precursors
Early modern
19th century
Classification and structure
Evolution
Archaea
Bacteria
Eukaryotes
Protists
Fungi
Plants
Ecology
Extremophiles
Plants and soil
Symbiosis
Applications
Food production
Water treatment
Energy
Chemicals, enzymes
Science
Warfare
Soil
Human health
Human gut flora
Disease
Hygiene
In fiction
See also
Notes
References
External links

thumb|upright=1.35|A Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies|cluster of [[Escherichia coli bacteria magnified 10,000 times]]

A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic size, which may exist in its single-celled form or as a colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen microbial life was suspected from antiquity, with an early attestation in Jain literature authored in 6th-century BC India. The scientific study of microorganisms began with their observation under the microscope in the 1670s by Anton van Leeuwenhoek. In the 1850s, Louis Pasteur found that microorganisms caused food spoilage, debunking the theory of spontaneous generation. In the 1880s, Robert Koch discovered that microorganisms caused the diseases tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, and anthrax.