• Question: Would a disease/micro-organism have to evolve itself to survive in water, and if so how much?

    Asked by joelblakey48 to Paul on 25 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 25 Jun 2013:

      @joelblakey48-

      Microorganisms were the first inhabitants of the earth, and first appeared in the oceans. Of course, since then they have evolved to live in pretty much every available environment anywhere on earth, but the vast majority still live in water (both fresh and sea water).

      Some of the microorganisms which live in water can cause massive disease problems for us, such as cholera- caused by a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae- but most of them do us no harm at all; indeed there are many that can actually help us by providing new medicines etc. and deep ocean scientists are discovering new species every day, which they hope will have properties which we can use in the future.

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