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Asked by millyrose to Anil, Blanka, Cees, Emma, Mike on 25 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by whlara.
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Emma Trantham answered on 25 Jun 2012:
Hmmm I probably should say Campylobacter jejuni as that is the species of bacteria I work with. It is really interesting – it lives in chickens without causing them much harm but can give us really nasty food poisoning and other more serious problems. We don’t know a huge amount about its lifestyle at the moment which is part of the reason I find it so interesting.
Having said that there are a lot of other germs (disease-causing organisms) out there that are cool. Yersinia pestis is the bacterial species that causes plague and has actually been isolated from the teeth of the dug up bodies of victims of the Black Death in Mediaeval times!
Germs can also be quite cuddly – check out http://www.giantmicrobes.com/uk/ 🙂
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Michael Cook answered on 25 Jun 2012:
I don’t really have any favourites, although Emma makes a compelling argument. Any germ that is happy to stay inside other animals and away from me is a good germ.
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Blanka Sengerova answered on 25 Jun 2012:
There are a number of germs/bacteria that form part of the good bacteria group that are helpful to us. For instance the ones that live in our gut (or the gut of, say, cows) where they help to digest the food that we and other animals eat. So I would guess those must be the favourites…
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