and bacteria. A huge bunch of researchers and students has seen this later, but all together are an infinitesimal share of the mankind. Unfortunately, the rest does not know it, and thereby they cannot imagine how are these invisible and amazing processes and beings, which are more numerically, and by production of energy than the rest of us. The following studies of Fleming, Jenner, Pasteur, Koch, or Ehrlich, amplified different insights of this microscopic world, which live within, with us, and throughout the environment.
This first contact reveals that, our relation with the microscopic world has been a full ignorance along centuries, what is comprehensible, and becomes more respectful and humble while are being unveiled some issues that explain what relationship are there with health and farming. Still it is a little amount of points known, against the whole amount of relations that we suspect could exist. Could we name it functions? If there is some kind of mutual adaptation, then we should say: yes! The same way as the bacteria communities are allied in our gut, they take and give us some important functions. Something what is usual and a rule in the Nature, we thought that would be reduced to only a few relations, but not, this is only the onset. Once more, our notion is constrained by our ignorance, even now in the XXI century.
Was the British Martinus Willem Beijerinck who defined the pathogenic agents in plants that he found as viruses (in latin, poisons), and also the nitrogen fixation by legumes. Well, as it seems, the human eye has been able to see yet more, but other sort of eyesight is the deduction that comes from look and watch... and measuring. After the large times of work that spent Gregor Mendel, and his skillful deductions, came the appearing of new tools, as the electronic microscope, the X rays, or the scanning electron microscope. In its viewfinders it was discovered other world, completed later with a deducted vision of the genetic material, the DNA helix. Still there were more surprises with the new understanding (still we are with diapers) of millions of processes that every second happen within the cells: the way which a cue wakes up the cells to produce molecules, and signals which travel towards the other side of the body, provoke reactions and control the functions, and so a lot of relationships which go along a string.
The surprising and important thing is that, along this chain of events, there are found organisms, molecules, processes, relationships, and mathematical laws extractable that define it. And a big part of main molecules, processes, information used, is shared among all species, so that even an element or process is possible to find, or can be used in different species with such aim or likely aim. In other words, it could be like a mobile phone that can be used in different countries by changing his net, interface, and of course the charger. In this case, the partners at the end might be talking the same or different language with different results. The functions that many biological molecules produce are known, but despite it, it seems not to be a worry for nobody the loss of microorganisms and complexity within and over the soils of our lands. Is very weird to see any mention into scientific papers about the impoverishment of soils and organisms. Does not was noticed this? Has not been feasible this research? Certainly, many scientists point the need to preserve biodiversity, between other reasons because is a living source of information about biological molecules and its functions.
The research that you could imagine as an army of scientists who are protecting your life, actually is an army of scientist who are working to finish projects with a profitable goal, either a medium firm, a big company, or an international enterprise. Among thousands of millions of processes that exist in nature, they are only studying those that have a profit, not those really could be desirable and also profitable. The rest is forgotten, likely forever. Thus, soils are mute for us, and we are losing a truly richness. Of course, the few studies are aimed to perform solutions for strong economies, where people has the money enough to pay, and has been trained for wanting and say yes to every new fantastic discovering. You will say: "yes, that is true, but there are a lot of medicinal plants still, there, which can be used!" All this slowly is disappearing despite the huge stores for seeds that have been built along the world: the trending of people is accepting every "technological improvement" performed, when these improvements promises good profit, less work, and more safety (only for the developed).
Research and medicinal plants… yes, it sounds to medicine. Should be we against the medicine? Said it plainly, absolutely not. You would never have wanted to be one those who suffered the poliomyelitis, medicine is not an enemy. However, a science off balance is a trouble that has brought up already in our lives, fully. Is this actually science, forget and pass over these relationships into bacterial communities that we have "cleaned" from the soils? I do not think so.
Still more, you have heard already about viruses, as sort of terrible raiders that nobody knows where are they coming. Actually, viruses are made of genetic material, are commonly transferred between cells and organisms, and have activity within the cells -in our genes, they are the 8%-, as genetic material are sometimes wrapped, but are organic material. That means, we know now even less than that written some few paragraphs before. Only one action, the spraying of a pesticide over hundreds of all kind of beings, has had effects consequently over hundred of natural targets (another recent note: 1): those targets may have been cells, tissues, organs, molecules, genes, bacteria, arthropods, and viruses... because the interaction of molecules is a natural event in the chemical and biological level, although always specialized somehow.
Spread a molecule leading it against only one being in a world where every living beings are sharing millions of genes, and saying it will not affect to other targets, as we all were hoping, is it credible? It is a giant joke, as giant is the surface treated, and huge the number of people who have had trust on the modern world. It follows the vagueness of the terms modern world, or advanced technology we may be interested only words like respect, fair, desirable or achievable, or expressions like proper use.
By other side, a company does not need be worried about this because contrary to logic, are the consumers who should show and demonstrate and elucidate if things have been wrongly done. And it has a big cost, is a millionaire figure, our problem is the huge amount of money necessary to elucidate each one of those troubles that were and continue being originated. Who go spend time and money on it? Oh, some legal complaints are so expensive! I hope you understand now how microbiology and genetic engineering, applied like technologies, are a round business: you never will have control over this. Another joke more: the tobacco has roughly 800 compounds identified, 30 of them dangerous, carcinogenic, but ... just one of them may be guilty? Would not be guilty the combined action of several of them? How many of them, how will you find out this? This is an essential base in Toxicology, but it seems to be forgotten when companies reply to claims.
(1) Pedro Gómez, Angus Buckling. Bacteria‐phage antagonistic coevolution in Soil. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.1200660
The routes to transfer information, to replicate molecules, to produce, to signal processes, are shared in different degrees between viruses, bacteria, protozoa, plants and animals: the basis of relations in the chemical level is always within a being living, and the main place where it happens is the soil and its settlers, all of we, living beings. The concern what we may have is this one: all these companies that we think are science's machines, have thought that the natural soils are dispensable with all the included inside. I think honestly like many people who is working for make the farms can be healthy, we should be concerned about it, this time definitely, and change personally our vision, one by one. Let's follow forward with this film but into the field, not in a ward or in an auditorium.
Soils are a meeting point for almost all microorganisms.
Barring some species of bacteria adapted to extreme conditions and organisms from seas, almost all communities of bacteria, algae, protozoa, have a common place in soils, and on the water, this last an element included in some degree: afterwards come the list of upper actors
: plants and animals. There is one special actor, the man, who has taken part for long and intensely. Let me go back in time and remember a story.
Was Pasteur in the XIX century who fought against the transmission of diseases in humans and plants -from him come the works about silkworms, anthrax and rabies-: thus your own pet now is safe, if you vaccinated it. He created by the first time the first colonies of bacteria, which were deliberately weakened by him, and were an initial kind of vaccine: he determined the reality of the transmission of diseases among species. Later, was Robert Koch who identified what is the infectious agent of the tuberculosis, and established the principles for determine when an agent may be considered as infectious, the known as Koch’s postulates: (1) the microorganism must be found in abundance in all organisms suffering from the disease, but should not be found in healthy organisms; (2) the microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture; (3) the cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism; (4) the microorganism must be
An Invisible Chain of our Time Page 5