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Everything About Microbes

Microbes, explained — allies, viruses, variants and everyday encounters

Bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea and the ways they meet us: fermentation, microbiomes, mutation, vaccines and the illnesses people actually encounter. Visual, multilingual, and not a laboratory manual.

24topics 4families 168chapters 9languages

Scale of microbial life

Scale of microbial life Scale of microbial life 10 nm to 100 ?m 10 nm 100 nm 1 µm 10 µm 100 µm Viruses 100 nm Bacteriophages 200 nm Bacteria 2000 nm Archaea 2000 nm Fungi yeast ~4 ?m Protozoa 40000 nm

Size, generation time and typical numbers — teaching marks, not lab measurements.

The map of microbes

Every topic placed by benefit and risk. Bubble size is medical weight.

Risk ?Benefit ?
BBacteriaVVirusesFFungiAArchaeaBBacteriophagesPProtozoaGGut microbiomePProbioticsFFermentationSSkin microbiomeSSoil microbesNNitrogen cycleMMutation and variantsAAntibiotic resistanceVVaccines and immunityBBiofilmsHHygiene and balanceHHorizontal gene transferIInfluenzaTTuberculosisEEscherichia coliSStaphylococcus aureusNNorovirusHHelicobacter pylori

Top-right: high benefit and high risk often travel together — fermentation is not influenza.

By family

Tree of microbes

Bacteria, viruses, fungi, archaea, phages and protozoa — the main branches of microbial life.

6 topics ?

Beneficial allies

Gut and skin microbiomes, probiotics, fermentation, soil life and the nitrogen cycle.

6 topics ?

Change & defence

Mutation and variants, biofilms, gene transfer, antibiotic resistance, vaccines and hygiene balance.

6 topics ?

Encounters

Influenza, tuberculosis, E. coli, staph, norovirus and Helicobacter — public-health meetings, not a how-to.

6 topics ?

Across every topic

Scale of life

From nanometres to colonies — how size, time and numbers change what a microbe can do.

Open ?

Compare topics

Familiarity, medical weight, benefit, risk, research and debate — side by side.

Open ?

Microbe timeline

Discoveries, outbreaks and tools that changed how we see the invisible.

Open ?

Image credits

Every photograph and artwork on these pages, with its author and licence.

Open ?

Browse every topic

Tree of microbes

Bacteria

Single-celled prokaryotes with cell walls ? the oldest widespread life form, and both partners and pathogens.

Familiarity 95

Viruses

Packets of DNA or RNA that are not cells — they replicate only inside living hosts.

Familiarity 96

Fungi

A eukaryotic kingdom of yeasts, moulds and mushrooms — chitin walls, external digestion, partners of plants.

Familiarity 80

Archaea

A prokaryotic domain that is not bacteria — methanogens, extremophiles and no known human pathogens.

Familiarity 35

Bacteriophages

Viruses that infect bacteria — Earth's most abundant biological entities, and a concept-level idea in medicine.

Familiarity 42

Protozoa

Motile unicellular eukaryotes — a teaching grade that includes pond ciliates and a minority of serious parasites.

Familiarity 58

Beneficial allies

Gut microbiome

A diverse intestinal community fed by fibre — not a single ideal species list and not a wellness shop.

Familiarity 88

Probiotics

Live microbes in food or capsules — strain-specific guests, not a whole microbiome and not medical advice.

Familiarity 90

Fermentation

Microbes turning food into kimchi, doenjang, yoghurt and other living crafts — chemistry plus culture.

Familiarity 85

Skin microbiome

A site-specific living film — oily, moist and dry neighbourhoods, not a sterile wrapper.

Familiarity 62

Soil microbes

The hidden workforce of land — decomposers, mycorrhizae and a mostly uncultured majority.

Familiarity 48

Nitrogen cycle

How microbes move nitrogen between air, soil, water and food — plus the industrial shortcut that feeds billions.

Familiarity 40

Change & defence

Mutation and variants

Populations of genomes, not cartoon villains — RNA viruses copy sloppily, and public-health names track clusters that spread.

Familiarity 92

Antibiotic resistance

A shared drug budget under selection in hospitals, farms and wastewater — stewardship, not a lab manual.

Familiarity 85

Vaccines and immunity

Antibodies, memory cells and community arithmetic — conceptual, not a prescription and not an anti-vaccine tract.

Familiarity 94

Biofilms

Surface cities of microbes — plaque and catheters explain persistence, without a grow-your-own kit.

Familiarity 38

Hygiene and balance

Clean water saves lives; missing old microbial partners is a separate, still-debated immune story.

Familiarity 70

Horizontal gene transfer

Sideways DNA traffic — conjugation, transduction, transformation as names and history, not protocols.

Familiarity 45

Encounters

Influenza

A winter respiratory virus of drift and rare shift — surveillance and vaccines, not a cartoon villain.

Familiarity 93

Tuberculosis

An airborne bacillus of latency and long care — programmes and air, not a drug recipe.

Familiarity 70

Escherichia coli

Usually a gut resident; a minority of STEC pathotypes drive foodborne headlines.

Familiarity 82

Staphylococcus aureus

A common skin neighbor and a resistance story called MRSA — not scare porn.

Familiarity 78

Norovirus

A very-low-dose gut virus of schools and ships — soap and bleach surfaces, not alcohol-gel faith.

Familiarity 80

Helicobacter pylori

A gastric spiral that rewrote the ulcer textbook — Nobel 2005, Korea's high historic prevalence, no recipes.

Familiarity 68