BR_Wild Life of our bodies_Segments Flashcards
Do people have worms?
In the 1930’s and 1940’s, nearly half the children had worms.
What happens when we use a bacteria wipe?
p.78.
It doesn’t kill just the bad, but it kills our goods bacteria as well. Killing our good harms us!
What are the three main species of Bacteria that we are involved with?
- Mutualists
- Communals
- Pathogens
p. 80.
What is Mitochondria? (My dah CON dree ah)
Mitochondria (My dah CON dree an) N. Any of various round or long cellular organelles of most eukaryotes that are found outside the nucleus, produce energy for the cell through cellular respiration, and are rich in fats, proteins, and enzymes.
Mitochondria powers our cells.
Mitochondria are ancient bacteria cells. We get them from our Mother’s DNA.
Like electricity is to the light bulb, the Mitochondria is our power source for living!
They give us the caloric energy from the food we eat.
Why do termites eat wood?
Termites cannot digest wood. They do not get any energy from wood. Termites were evolved as a tool to mulch down rotten wood and supply the bacteria in their guts with the wood. The bacteria is what digest the food.
In turn, the poo from the bacteria eating said food is what makes termite vitamins and feeds them nutrition. Same thing happens with us humans.
So if termites cannot digest the food for energy, how do they stay alive? What gives them power?
These answers are an expansion of what the book explains.
When the bacteria in the termite’s gut eats the wood, the bacteria gives off a waste product [POO].
The poo is what gives the nourishment and energy to the termite.
Before termites evolved, billions and billions of trees died and fell on the floor of the forest. Over the centuries they drifted down through the soil into the crust of the earth.
With time and pressures these trees turned into the vast coal reserves we have been using for centuries in the modern era.
What happens if a termite gets too cold or too hot?
When termites are cooled or warmed and their microbes killed, the termites die. They continue to feed for a while, but the food they eat passes through them undigested.
They starve even if surrounded by wood. They starve because without their microbes, they are unable to digest their diet.
p. 90.
So how are we humans dependent on bacteria like the termite?
p.93.
Bacteria gets the calories out of food. This gives us our energy to live.
As a side note:
Recall that all energy comes from our Sun. The Sun grows the plant. We eat the plant and get the energy put in it from the Sun.
Animals eat plants. Animals eat animals. Humans eat animals. This is how we get our protein, our energy from the Sun.
We cannot get our energy from the Sun directly. But bacteria evolved the plants and animals, including us to get the Sun’s energy to the bacteria in our cells so the bacteria could live.
Plants, animals and humans are basically a machine for capturing the Sun’s energy and getting the energy in the form of food to the bacteria.
This is the answer to the great question: “Why are we here?”
[For mountains of detail, read “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawson.]
Why do obese parents normally have an obese child?
[MN: Part of the problem is poor diet. Obese people are typically malnourished.]
The biological root of the problem is obese people have more efficent microbes, thus they get many more calories out of normal foods than we do.
So foods are supercharged to them with calories. Especially fatty foods and sugars.
For example, a meal of 200 calories for a skinny person could be 300 or 400 calories for an obese person who has superior microbes.
These microbes are passed down through normal bacteria [Breast milk and birth canal Bacteria] and by DNA.
These super microbes saved our ancestors in times of famine.
What would happen if a skinny person got some obese highly efficient microbes to replace his normal microbes?
Scientists have done this with skinny mice.
They replaced some normal mouse microbes with some high efficiency obese mouse microbes.
The result? The mice all became obese mice!
p. 96.
Does shit stink to every animal?
Does Road Kill stink to every animal?
Shit only smells bad to our brain. To dung beetles, perhaps dogs and birds, it can smell lovely!
A vulture thinks rotten flesh is like candy!
Humans evolved to stay away from shit, therefore our brain thinks it stinks as a side benefit deterrent.
It amazes us that dogs and birds can joyfully eat shit and like it.
Road Kill on a hot summer day smells putrid to us humans. But to a Vulture it smells and taste like ice cream. It is all in the brain!
