The phrase "small bacteria" is grammatically correct and can be used in written English.
It is typically used to describe a specific type or size of bacteria. Example: The scientist observed small bacteria under the microscope, each one more intricate and fascinating than the next.
The discovery of the Mimivirus in 2003 by Didier Raoult and Jean-Michel Claverie made headlines because of the virus' remarkable size--comparable to that of many small bacteria.
Also much nonsense about small bacteria growing into large Frankenstein monsters and grabbing nubile women off the Empire State building.
To discover what is real, we use our five senses, Dawkins writes, and when things get too big or far away (distant galaxies) or too small (bacteria), our senses are augmented with devices like telescopes and microscopes.
Until the 1930s most scientists believed that viruses were small bacteria, but following the invention of the electron microscope in 1931 they were shown to be completely different, to a degree that not all scientists were convinced they were anything other than accumulations of toxic proteins.
Under the assumptions of the model, mixotrophs are just faced with the existence of small bacteria as a resource.
Large bacteria have higher growth rates than small ones at high dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations [23] but small bacteria can better exploit low DOC concentrations.
This molecule would be an exact copy of the genome of a small bacterium.
Last year biologists synthesized the entire genome of a small bacterium and showed how it could successfully infect a second bacterium.
One reason for Dr. Venter's optimism is that he says his institute is close to synthesizing from simple chemicals an entire genome, 580,000 DNA units in length, of a small bacterium, Mycoplasma genitalium.
It was used to resequence the genome of a small bacterium in four hours, a procedure that previously required 24,000 separate operations spread over four to six months in 1995.
A decade ago, the discovery in an amoeba of a virus that rivals the size of a small bacterium prompted a rethinking of how viruses originated and what they could do.
