Role of Bacteria
Connor Tramel and Connor Salerno
Introduction
Of the thousands of bacteria that live on earth, only a few cause diseases. Many bacteria are important and even helpful to us.
Decomposer bacteria breaks down dead plant and animal matter, this makes nutrients available to other living things.
Bacteria is actually in many of the foods that you eat. Every time you eat cheese, yogurt, or sour cream, you are also eating bacteria. Lactic acid producing bacteria break down sugar in milk (lactose). Bacteria change lactose into lactic acid which preserves and adds flavor to the food.
Bacteria is also used in many medicines. In antibiotics, the goal is to kill bacteria and microorganisms, but they are using bacteria to do that. People with diabetes use a certain type of bacteria to produce insulin which they need in order to survive.
Conclusion
Those are some of the roles of bacteria in the real world. Bacteria isn't always harmful, it's actually helping us most of the time.