Hello.
We are Escherichia coli! We are here to put the record straight
on something - despite what you might have heard, we are not all
out to kill.
That E. coli O157:H7 strain has been giving the rest of us a bad name, going around causing food poisoning in adults who eat undercooked beef or contaminated veggies.
But he is just one of many E. coli strains, and the rest of us are sick of all the negative press. Some of us are pretty big in the science world you know, with scientists studying us and using us for their molecular biology techniques. All those humans in white coats work call us model organisms because we are so harmless and easy to handle - we double in numbers in just 20 minutes under the right conditions.
Plus, without us living in your guts and helping process waste
and absorb important nutrients, not to mention stopping any nasty
bacteria from taking up residence, you'd all be in deep poo. Talking
of poo, that's where you'll find us - 90% of the cells making
up a human body are bacteria that live in your intestines, so
just imagine how many of us you flush away every day! We should
probably use this opportunity to apologize for all that flatulence
though, we really can't help producing gas when we eat. Honest.
