One thing that I have come to realize throughout the semester in my Biology class is that microbes have just as much power to keep us alive as they do to kill us. A new study suggests that microbes may be responsible for the largest extinction in the history of our planet. Of course, this extinction occurred way before human life existed - even before the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Scientists call this microbe-induced extinction the "end-Permian extinction" which began about 252 million years ago and lasted approximately 20,000 years.
The article, "Small Microbes Almost Killed All Life On Earth, Study Suggests" tells all about the deathly microbes. Author of this article, Deborah Netburn does a good job presenting the facts of this new discovery. Netburn doesn't present what actually caused this extinction until the middle-end of the article - something I would have presented earlier on. Eventually I did learn that the source of this extinction was the Methanosarcina. Methanosarcina is a " tiny methane-spewing microbe" - according to the article. I did like how Netburn presented the clues as to why scientists think that this extinction could have transpired. One of the clues Netburn discusses were the huge spikes in CO2 levels at the time of the extinction. "If the C02 came from the sudden combustion of a coal field in Siberia
it wouldn't behave this way. It has this special character that is
consistent with microbial processes" says MIT geophysicist Dan Rothman.
Rothman understands that this idea sounds a little far fetched, but it is "...consistent, and that's what is necessary to move forward and provide further tests." Similar to other articles I have written a blog about - more research is to be conducted. I'm unsure as to how concluding this discovery could benefit us today, but I'm sure any scientist could answer that question.
Microbes are tiny but powerful. As microbiologists like to say, 'Microbes rule the Earth, and we just live on it.'
Researching about microbes more and more, one can come to the conclusion that a single bacterium or microbe can do so many things, whether it being good or bad. They can live anywhere at any time. The fact that the article presents thorough facts and detail it is really hard to find a different opinion from the scientists. Yet sometimes, rich detailed articles become easy bias targets. Just like this one. The fact that it is trying to persuade you into thinking that Methanosarcina was the cause of it all. Yet how do we really know for a fact that was the case? 250+ million years ago, something else could have been going on and nature could have had something else be the cause of it. Yet if it were to indicate both sides to this, it would be a well developed article.
ReplyDeleteAlana...I can really see the examples of your knowledge gain. You did a good job of analyzing one of the authors claims and evidence.
ReplyDeleteGreat article and you did a nice job analyzing it! This research is very new and there will be a lot of debate about the degree to which this new hypothesis could be responsible for the mass extinction.
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