In case you didn't have enough to think about, consider that clouds of nanobacteria may be circulating in the Earth's atmosphere, causing disease and who knows what else.
Tiny particles linked to a number of painful and sometimes deadly diseases may spread across the globe by hitching a ride in clouds, claim researchers in a recent issue of the Journal of Proteome Research.The particles, known as nanobacteria, are 100 times smaller than typical bacteria and have been found in kidney stones, arterial plaques and ovarian cancers.
But scientists have yet to agree whether the particles actually cause the diseases or how they infect humans.
Also unknown is whether the particles are life forms or an unknown type of crystal -- a rift that has sparked one of the biggest controversies in modern microbiology.
Now, a new theory by Andrei Sommer, of the University of Ulm, Germany, and N. Chandra Wickramasinghe, of Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, attempts to show how nanobacteria moves from humans to the environment and back.
Note that this is different from another new study that indicates millions of tons of powderized dandruff and other organic detritus may be blocking sunlight from reaching the Earth's surface and contributing to climate change.
Many types of emissions have been tied to climate change and air pollution, but a new study has come up with a novel suspect: dandruff.Posted by Alan at April 12, 2005 12:53 AMGerman researchers discovered unexpectedly large amounts of dandruff and other flaking skin, fur, pollen and similar materials known as biological aerosols. This cellular material had been thought to be only a small proportion of all aerosols, which include mineral dusts, clay and sea salt.
Ruprecht Jaenicke, of the Institute for Atmospheric Physics at Mainz University in Germany, reported a team had studied air samples and discovered that biological aerosols make up 25 percent of all aerosols on average, and as much as 80 percent in some areas and at certain times.
He estimated that the amount of biological particles in the air, worldwide, annually is 1,000 teragrams. A teragram is somewhat more than a million tons.