A microorganism (from the Greek: , mikros, "small" and , organisms,

"organism") is a microscopic living organism, which may be single celled[1] or multicellular. The
study of microorganisms is called microbiology, a subject that began with the discovery of
microorganisms in 1674 by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, using a microscope of his own design.
Microorganisms are very diverse and include all the bacteria and archaea and almost all the
protozoa. They also include some fungi, algae, and certain animals, such as rotifers. Many
macroscopic animals and plants have microscopic juvenile stages. Some microbiologists also
classify viruses (and viroids) as microorganisms, but others consider these as nonliving.[2][3]
Microorganisms live in every part of the biosphere, including soil, hot springs, "seven miles
deep" in the ocean, "40 miles high" in the atmosphere and inside rocks far down within the
Earth's crust (see also endolith).[4] Microorganisms, under certain test conditions, have been
observed to thrive in the vacuum of outer space
There arent very many good things about viruses they usually attack your body
and make you sick! One virus that did make a huge difference though was the
cowpox virus. It was because of the cowpox virus that you can be vaccinated
against lots of nasty diseases today! Viruses have very clever ways of attacking all
types of cells, including bacteria. Scientists are trying to find ways of using these
viruses to kill bacteria, instead of antibiotics
Viruses can make you and the people around you very sick. They cause lots of
different diseases, from cold sores and warts to measles, colds and flu! They can be
very contagious - they spread very quickly from one person to another. They can
even spread in the air, in droplets that form when people cough or sneeze or from
surfaces like door handles and telephones! There are very few medicines for
viruses, antibiotics dont work on viruses so there is no point taking them!
Bacteria arent all bad, in fact you couldnt survive without some bacteria! Good
bacteria in your gut, probiotics like GI Jake, help digest your food and fight invading
microbes. Good bacteria are used in making some of the dairy products you like to
eat and also some types of medicines! Bacteria are some of the best decomposers
they break down dead and decaying organic matter, from leaves to insects. Best
of all, bacteria are being used to clean up oil spills to keep your environment
healthy too.
You cannot escape bacteria, they are everywhere! The good thing is that very few
bacteria are harmful, but bad bacteria arent much fun. Bad bacteria like Pat OGen
make you sick, while other bad bacteria spoil your food and water, making it
unsafe. Bad bacteria love when you or your environment is unhygienic or dirty.
They take any chance they get to take over! Remember, bacteria can make copies
of themselves very quickly so just one bad bacterium can make you sick or spoil
your food!

There are lots of good fungi but they can look very like bad fungi so you must be
careful! Fungi can be good to eat, like some mushrooms or foods made from yeast,
like bread or soy sauce. Molds from fungi are used to make cheeses like Cashel blue
or Roquefort! Scientists use fungi to make antibiotics, which doctors sometimes use
to treat bacterial infections. Fungi also help to decompose lots of different organic
material, from leaves to insects!
Bad fungi are really bad! Some mushrooms can make you sick, even though they
look safe to eat. There are fungi that love to make horrible itchy, scaly patches on
your skin. Other fungi love the warm, damp skin between your toes and make your
skin crack and bleed! If fungi get inside your body, they can cause serious
problems. Fungi love animals and plants too - lots of crops are damaged every year
because fungi have attacked them!

Benefits
Algae are emerging to be one of the most promising long-term, sustainable sources of biomass
and oils for fuel, food, feed, and other co-products. What makes them so attractive are the large
number and wide variety of benefits associated with how and where they grow.
Nearly all these benefits stem from the fact that these plants have evolved over billions of years
to produce and store energy in the form of oil, and they do this more efficiently than any other
known natural or engineered process.
The algae are harmful to humans in several ways. Volvocales, Chlorococcales,
Myxophyceae and several others occur in such a great abundance in water, that
they colour the whole water either green or blue green and cause the death of
fishes. The algae block the gills of the fishes and they respire during night and make
the respiration of fishes difficult by complete depletion of oxygen.

Useful protozoans:
1. Protozoans serve as food for many small aquatic organisms. Zooplankton are tiny protozoans
which live in the sea. They form the principal diet of blue whales, who gulp them in with sea
water.
2. They are the ultimate decomposers in nature, as they feed on bacteria and fungi, which
decompose dead organic matter. They are, thus, useful in the treatment of sewage.
3. Some protozoans live in the body of other organisms and help them. Termites, for example,
have protozoans living in their body. The protozoans digest the cellulose in the wood eaten by
termites and convert it into carbohydrates that the termites can use.
Harmful protozoans:

Some protozoans cause diseases. The protozoan Endamoeba histolytica causes amoebiasis
(amoebic dysentery) in human beings, Giardia causes giardiasis (dysentery), while Plasmodium
causes malaria. trypanosome, a parasitic protozoan which lives in the bloodstream of human
beings, cattle and other animals, causes a dangerous disease called sleeping sickness.