A New Wave Of Bacteria Is Coming Soon…

We get inside the labs that are growing beneficial bacteria to gobble up pollution, harvest waste, generate energy and help keep us healthy

- Colin Barras

WHAT ARE BACTERIA?

Bacteria are microscopic, single-celled life forms. Bacterial cells tend to be smaller than human cells, and they have a simpler internal structure. But, despite this simplicity, bacteria are astonishingly successful. They can live all over the planet in many different environments, including hot springs, hyper-salty lakes, the highest mountains and the deepest oceans.

We’re in trouble. Our over-reliance on fossil fuels and our taste for foods with a high carbon footprint is causing disruptive climate change. Our throwaway society has flooded the land and seas with plastic pollution. And we face a growing public health crisis triggered by the rise of disease-causing microbes that we cannot kill with antibiotics.

Now for the good news. The last few years have brought promising evidence that we might be able to pull carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere and slow the pace of climate change, that we have the potential to grow high-quality protein without the large carbon footprint, and that we can clean up our pollution and blunt the impact of antibiotic resistance. The common element in all these potential breakthroughs? Bacteria.

As unlikely as it might sound, our future health and happiness might be secured by these humble microbes.

HUMAN HEALTH

Beneficial bugs that heal the body