Post by Catsmate on Jun 14, 2016 10:58:43 GMT
Bacteria are fascinating creatures, here are a few of a stranger ones known to science ready to inspire a game scenario.
Geobacter metallireducens is a rod shaped, Gram-negative, anaerobic bacteria. It was first discovered in the mud of the Potomac River, near Washington DC, 1987 by Dr. Derek Lovley from University of Massachusetts. These microorganisms have a fascinating lifecycle; instead of consuming food, like carbohydrates, like most organisms, G. metallireducens directly oxidises organic compounds and converts iron oxides to metallic iron. A similar bacterium, now called Shewanella oneidensis, was discovered in 1988 in Oneida Lake in New York State where it was responsible for a puzzling absence of manganese oxides in the polluted lake water. This organism has evolved to directly use minerals as an energy source, in the process converting manganese oxides to manganese.
In 2015 a further six strains of bacteria capable of such chemical trickery were discovered in marine sediment from Catalina Harbour, off the Californian coast. Even more interesting was their behaviour in laboratory testing; they were found to be attracted to electrodes inserted into the sediment, feeding directly from a source of electricity.
Another strange bacterium is Photorhabdus luminescens, which is carried by nematodes (small parasitic worms). While the baterium had been known to exist for decades it wasn't until 2001 that a pair of teenagers linked it to an odd historical phenomena. During and after the battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers from both armies reported a weird effect; wounds started to glow, an effect dubbed "Angel's Glow" as it was noticed such wounds seemed less likely to kill the effected soldier.
The worms thrived in the cold, rain and mud of the battlefield and, exacerbated by the delay in treatment due to the vast number of casualties, the wounded soldiers had become hypothermic. Their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for the growth of P. luminescens which acts to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria, leading to fewer dangerous infections and saving lives.
Smaller organisms infected P. luminescens also exhibit an eerie green glow.
Then there's Myxococcus xanthus, a perfect inspiration for blob like creatures. Bacteria are single-celled organisms, however they don't always exist as individuals. M. xanthus travels as a 'wolf pack', a rippling swarm that moves as individual bacteria stick out a long, hair-like 'pilus' and drags itself forward. Like a tiny blob the colony hunts my enveloping any other organisms in it's path and dissolving them with a mix of antibiotics and digestive enzymes.
It's potential for destroying pathogenic bacteria in a world where antibiotics are becoming less effective means that this organism is being studied for possible medical use. Additionally it's been looked at as a method of disposing organic waste. The bacterium responds to a lack of food by stopping moving and creating a 'tower' from layers of bateria (up to 100,000 high) and releasing tough spores to spread.
In 1956 attempts to sterilise canned food with radiation triggered the discovery of Deinococcus radiodurans, a microorganism that can withstand a gamma ray dose 3,000 times that lethal to humans. Using both antioxidants (such as carotenoids that give it it's reddish colour) and multiple redundant copies of it's DNA it is the most radiation-resistant lifeform on Earth. There's some speculation that it might be extraterrestrial in origin, though it's generally believed that the radiation resistance is a byproduct of an adaption to resist dehydration.
Caulobacter crescentus is a common aquatic bacterium that secretes a potent adhesive to stick it's body to surfaces. Recent tests have shown that the waterproof, sugar based adhesive it uses is several times stronger than cyanoacrylate glues. It's being investigated for use in medicine; setting broken bones, stitching skin and applying antibacterial coatings to medical implants such as artificial heart valves.
Finally there's Magnetospirillum magneticum a corkscrew-shaped bacterium that lives in bogs and brackish water and was first discovered in 1963. It orientates it's tiny body to the Earth's magnetic field, via magnetite nanocrystals in their cellular skeleton to arrange the crystals in a neat line. There have been experiments using magnetotactic bacteria to generate electric power and there is interest in geneered forms of such bacteria.
Game Uses.
Such bacteria could crop up in a present day/near future scenario, or one set on a different planet.
Organisms such as G. metallireducens could be stripping off protective oxide layers, or otherwise endangering structures and other metallic constructions. Or perhaps they are attracted to human energy sources, causing power outages and fluctuations, or being killed by the power and leaving behind unusual organic compounds.
Such organisms are also being investigated for a host of industrial and environmental purposes, such as bacterial fuel cells that convert methane, ethanol or other fuels to useful electricity with far greater efficiency than combustion, non-polluting techniques for extracting metals from ores (especially for marginal sources), methods to remediate heavy metal pollution, substrates for organic circuitry and more.
P. luminescens could be used as the basis for a wound treatment; perhaps a geneered form is impregnated into dressings and bandages, and such dressings show a visible glow to indicate they're working. Of course not everyone would be happy with having bacterial deliberately introduced into injuries, the bacteria could mutate under certain stimuli (like alien biosystems) or simply spread. Perhaps the PCs arrive on a scout base on an alien planet that's experiencing an outbreak of strange green glowing patches on the walls. Of course it's all completely harmless...
Scientists might try and transfer the radiation tolerance of D. radiodurans to other bacteria, perhaps to help in removing radioactive material from an accident site. Of course the new super-tough bacterium might develop less desirable traits...
M. xanthus would be perfect for a game inspired by the Blob films. Experimentation on deliberately mutated bateria perhaps, that produce a huge bacterial colony capable of attacking animals and dissolving them into food. Starting with mice and gradually increasing in size the colony threatens even humans...
The interest in biofuels such as methanol, ethanol and butanol might lead to genetically enhanced microorganisms that can survive in high concentrations of alcohol and allow fuels to be produced cheaply from organic waste without requiring distillation (most current strains die in 15-25% alcohol). Now imagine a mutated form that gets into the wild and survives, what else might it secrete? Psychoactives perhaps? Or a toxin deadly to humans. The PCs (agents of CamRA?) have to stop it before all alcohol supplies on Earth (or elsewhere) are infected and become poisonous.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
Links and further reading.
BBC article on G. metallireducens
Science paper on S. oneidensis
Annette Rowe's paper on her work on bacteria from marine sediment
Geobacter Metallireducens
Caulobacter crescentus
Magnetospirillum Magneticum
Geobacter metallireducens is a rod shaped, Gram-negative, anaerobic bacteria. It was first discovered in the mud of the Potomac River, near Washington DC, 1987 by Dr. Derek Lovley from University of Massachusetts. These microorganisms have a fascinating lifecycle; instead of consuming food, like carbohydrates, like most organisms, G. metallireducens directly oxidises organic compounds and converts iron oxides to metallic iron. A similar bacterium, now called Shewanella oneidensis, was discovered in 1988 in Oneida Lake in New York State where it was responsible for a puzzling absence of manganese oxides in the polluted lake water. This organism has evolved to directly use minerals as an energy source, in the process converting manganese oxides to manganese.
In 2015 a further six strains of bacteria capable of such chemical trickery were discovered in marine sediment from Catalina Harbour, off the Californian coast. Even more interesting was their behaviour in laboratory testing; they were found to be attracted to electrodes inserted into the sediment, feeding directly from a source of electricity.
Another strange bacterium is Photorhabdus luminescens, which is carried by nematodes (small parasitic worms). While the baterium had been known to exist for decades it wasn't until 2001 that a pair of teenagers linked it to an odd historical phenomena. During and after the battle of Shiloh in 1862, soldiers from both armies reported a weird effect; wounds started to glow, an effect dubbed "Angel's Glow" as it was noticed such wounds seemed less likely to kill the effected soldier.
The worms thrived in the cold, rain and mud of the battlefield and, exacerbated by the delay in treatment due to the vast number of casualties, the wounded soldiers had become hypothermic. Their lowered body temperatures made ideal conditions for the growth of P. luminescens which acts to inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria, leading to fewer dangerous infections and saving lives.
Smaller organisms infected P. luminescens also exhibit an eerie green glow.
Then there's Myxococcus xanthus, a perfect inspiration for blob like creatures. Bacteria are single-celled organisms, however they don't always exist as individuals. M. xanthus travels as a 'wolf pack', a rippling swarm that moves as individual bacteria stick out a long, hair-like 'pilus' and drags itself forward. Like a tiny blob the colony hunts my enveloping any other organisms in it's path and dissolving them with a mix of antibiotics and digestive enzymes.
It's potential for destroying pathogenic bacteria in a world where antibiotics are becoming less effective means that this organism is being studied for possible medical use. Additionally it's been looked at as a method of disposing organic waste. The bacterium responds to a lack of food by stopping moving and creating a 'tower' from layers of bateria (up to 100,000 high) and releasing tough spores to spread.
In 1956 attempts to sterilise canned food with radiation triggered the discovery of Deinococcus radiodurans, a microorganism that can withstand a gamma ray dose 3,000 times that lethal to humans. Using both antioxidants (such as carotenoids that give it it's reddish colour) and multiple redundant copies of it's DNA it is the most radiation-resistant lifeform on Earth. There's some speculation that it might be extraterrestrial in origin, though it's generally believed that the radiation resistance is a byproduct of an adaption to resist dehydration.
Caulobacter crescentus is a common aquatic bacterium that secretes a potent adhesive to stick it's body to surfaces. Recent tests have shown that the waterproof, sugar based adhesive it uses is several times stronger than cyanoacrylate glues. It's being investigated for use in medicine; setting broken bones, stitching skin and applying antibacterial coatings to medical implants such as artificial heart valves.
Finally there's Magnetospirillum magneticum a corkscrew-shaped bacterium that lives in bogs and brackish water and was first discovered in 1963. It orientates it's tiny body to the Earth's magnetic field, via magnetite nanocrystals in their cellular skeleton to arrange the crystals in a neat line. There have been experiments using magnetotactic bacteria to generate electric power and there is interest in geneered forms of such bacteria.
Game Uses.
Such bacteria could crop up in a present day/near future scenario, or one set on a different planet.
Organisms such as G. metallireducens could be stripping off protective oxide layers, or otherwise endangering structures and other metallic constructions. Or perhaps they are attracted to human energy sources, causing power outages and fluctuations, or being killed by the power and leaving behind unusual organic compounds.
- Like Vraxoin perhaps. The mechanism for the Mandrels production of the drug was never revealed, perhaps it was down to symbiotic bacteria living on their bodies?
Such organisms are also being investigated for a host of industrial and environmental purposes, such as bacterial fuel cells that convert methane, ethanol or other fuels to useful electricity with far greater efficiency than combustion, non-polluting techniques for extracting metals from ores (especially for marginal sources), methods to remediate heavy metal pollution, substrates for organic circuitry and more.
- In fact some of the EU novels mention such pollution consuming organisms.
P. luminescens could be used as the basis for a wound treatment; perhaps a geneered form is impregnated into dressings and bandages, and such dressings show a visible glow to indicate they're working. Of course not everyone would be happy with having bacterial deliberately introduced into injuries, the bacteria could mutate under certain stimuli (like alien biosystems) or simply spread. Perhaps the PCs arrive on a scout base on an alien planet that's experiencing an outbreak of strange green glowing patches on the walls. Of course it's all completely harmless...
Scientists might try and transfer the radiation tolerance of D. radiodurans to other bacteria, perhaps to help in removing radioactive material from an accident site. Of course the new super-tough bacterium might develop less desirable traits...
M. xanthus would be perfect for a game inspired by the Blob films. Experimentation on deliberately mutated bateria perhaps, that produce a huge bacterial colony capable of attacking animals and dissolving them into food. Starting with mice and gradually increasing in size the colony threatens even humans...
The interest in biofuels such as methanol, ethanol and butanol might lead to genetically enhanced microorganisms that can survive in high concentrations of alcohol and allow fuels to be produced cheaply from organic waste without requiring distillation (most current strains die in 15-25% alcohol). Now imagine a mutated form that gets into the wild and survives, what else might it secrete? Psychoactives perhaps? Or a toxin deadly to humans. The PCs (agents of CamRA?) have to stop it before all alcohol supplies on Earth (or elsewhere) are infected and become poisonous.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
Links and further reading.
BBC article on G. metallireducens
Science paper on S. oneidensis
Annette Rowe's paper on her work on bacteria from marine sediment
Geobacter Metallireducens
Caulobacter crescentus
Magnetospirillum Magneticum
