Microorganism

A microorganism or microbe is an organism that is microscopic. The study of microorganism is called microbiology, a subject that began with Anton Van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of microorganism in 1675, he using a microscope of his own design.

Microorganism are very diverse. They include bacteria, fungi, and protist. Micsroscopic plants or green algae, and animals such as plankton and the planarian. Some microbiologist are include viruses, but others consider these as non-living.

Most microorganism are unicellular (single-celled), but this is not universal, since some multicellular organism are microscopic, while some unicellular protists and bacteria, are macroscopic and visible to look with naked eye.



Microorganisms live in all parts of the biosphere where there is liquid water, including soil, hot springs, on the ocean floor, high in the atmosphere and deep inside rocks within the Earth's crust. Microorganisms are critical to nutrient recycling in ecosystems as they act as decomposers. As some microorganisms can fix nitrogen, they are a vital part of the nitrogen cycle, and recent studies indicate that airborne microbes may play a role in precipitation and weather.

Microbes are also exploited by people in biotechnology, both in traditional food and beverage preparation, and in modern technologies based on genetic engineering. However, pathogenic microbes are harmful, since they invade and grow within other organisms, causing diseases that kill millions of people, other animals, and plants.