Bacteria are unicellular microorganisms, with their own mobility and that have a very small size and diversity in their shape: spheres, rods, helices, among others.
The bacteria they are the most abundant organisms on planet earth and which we can find in the most diverse habitats, even in those that suppose the most unfavorable conditions for the subsistence of any living organism.
From the ground, hot and acidic springs, following radioactive waste, even in the depths of the seas, the earth's crust and in the most inhospitable places of outer space, are some of the places where we can very easily find the tiny bacteria.
Approximately and to give you an idea of the proliferation of these and that it is not a pure story, it has been calculated that there are 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of earth and a million in a milliliter of fresh water.
On the other hand, in the human body itself we find that there are ten times as many bacterial cells as human cells, many of them living in the digestive tract and the skin, however, the immune system that we human beings have, makes that the action of these is practically harmless and even in some cases even beneficial.
Meanwhile, there are some pathogenic bacteria that are the vehicle of dangerous bacterial infections such as cholera, syphilis, leprosy, typhus, diphtheria and scarlet fever, but respiratory bacterial infections will be those that can cause death to humans, as is the case. of tuberculosis.
Antibiotics will usually be used to counteract the harmful effect of some bacteria. since these are the only ones that inhibit the formation of their cell walls and even stop some of their life cycles.
But, paradoxically, bacteria turn out to be essential in some tasks such as the recycling of certain elements, for some industrial processes, such as wastewater treatment and in the food industry for the production of cheeses, yogurts, butter, vinegars, among others. . Likewise, the manufacture of some drugs and other chemical products depend on the presence of these for their realization.
Bacteriology, a branch of microbiology deals with the study of bacteria.