Word: bacterias
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...explore. Oceans cover nearly three-quarters of the planet's surface--336 million cu. mi. of water that reaches an average depth of 2.3 miles. The sea's intricate food webs support more life by weight and a greater diversity of animals than any other ecosystem, from sulfur-eating bacteria clustered around deep-sea vents to fish that light up like New York City's Times Square billboards to lure their prey. Somewhere below there even lurks the last certified sea monster left from pre-scientific times: the 64-ft.-long giant squid...
...currents influence much of the world's weather patterns; figuring out how they operate could save trillions of dollars in weather-related disasters. The oceans also have vast reserves of commercially valuable minerals, including nickel, iron, manganese, copper and cobalt. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are already analyzing deep-sea bacteria, fish and marine plants looking for substances that they might someday turn into miracle drugs. Says Bruce Robison, of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in California: "I can guarantee you that the discoveries beneficial to mankind will far outweigh those of the space program over the next couple...
...definitive test for the disease. Doctors must base their diagnosis on such circumstantial evidence as abnormal spots on white blood cells and a low level of white cells or platelets in the blood. Furthermore, the drug most commonly used for Lyme disease -- amoxicillin -- is useless against the Ehrlichia bacteria...
Already this bacterial Rip Van Winkle is being touted as a trailblazer for a new industry. Ambergene Corp. of San Carlos, California, a small biotech firm Cano helped start, claims to have used similar techniques to reanimate nearly 1,500 prehistoric microorganisms ranging from bacteria to yeast. Among the compounds these tiny creatures produce, Cano and his partners hope to identify unique drugs, industrial enzymes and natural pesticides. The company is already filing for patents on promising microbes...
...Connecticut biochemist Peter Setlow, Cano is a long way from convincing critics "beyond a shadow of a doubt that the microbe he has isolated is an ancient one." Setlow agrees, however, that Cano has made the most compelling case possible. For instance, he has clearly established that his bacteria -- while related to Bacillus sphaericus, a living resident of apiarian digestive tracts -- are genetically distinct from known microbes. The catch is, something like 95% of the bacteria that populate today's world have not even been identified, much less analyzed by scientists...