Though some microbes are parasitic and pathogenic, many have developed symbiotic relationships with their hosts.
Some microbes were dark at that moment while others shone at full strength.
By three billion years ago, some microbes had evolved the ability to carry out photosynthesis.
Some microbes penetrate the body's protective barriers and enter the internal tissues.
There is also growing evidence that some microbes can biodegrade tiny pieces of plastic.
Some microbes, like the ones that cause tuberculosis, malaria and food poisoning, have become dangerously drug resistant.
Just as promising was the presence of sulfates and sulfides, which some microbes consume as an energy source.
Most telling is the fact that some microbes and animals have active methods of repairing damage produced by radiation.
The popular revulsion came later, after Louis Pasteur and other pioneers confirmed that some microbes were responsible for plagues and pestilence.
Bacterial metabolism, on the other hand, is staggeringly diverse: some microbes eat ammonium, some eat hydrogen; some breathe sulfates, some breathe iron.
At low concentrations, copper II) ions inhibit the growth of some microbes and fungi, which makes it one of the central ingredients in wood preservatives and in fungicides.
