Hey cookechicken1 we meet again! Cool question, very creative!
If there were no humans or living animals, only robots, then yes, bacteria could survive. There are heaps of different bacteria that survive in the environment (soil, water, acid even!) and never even infect humans or animals. So as long as the earth was the same (except without the animals and humans) they would be happy without us!
Viruses are different though. They need living things to survive, as they use our own cells against us to make new virus. So without their hosts (us or animals) they are gone. BUT, there are some viruses that just infect bacteria, called bacteriophages! Since there would be bacteria still happy in the environment, these viruses should be happy enough too!
So to sum up, you would lose some bacteria and lots of viruses, but if the world was still the world, then there will still be plenty left!
Cookedchicken1 I like these types of questions, they really make us scientists think because there are so many things to take into account. A part of me agrees with what Sam says and the other part doesn’t.
Yes its true there are bacteria that live in all sorts of environments, some very exotic like hydro-thermal vents near volcanoes but many environments man and bacteria live very closely together. Our actions till have an impact on their environment and change the number and types of bacteria available at a given point in time. So for example everytime you flush the toilet, your waste is treated at the wastewater plant, here you have a very complicated bacteria community, the more people flush and poop, the more complex the bacteria. So if we are robots and robots can’t poop well you will lose a fair few bacteria. The same goes for food, bacteria are used a lot in food manufacture. So if as robots we don’t eat food, well again, we might lose some microbes. On the other hand as robots we need oil to function, and run smoothly, the oil might increase the number and types of oil degrading bacteria. cool balance between us and microbes! I think our daily actions do have an impact on bacteria. If we as robots start doing things different, we can expect there to be a change in the type and number of bacteria we see. The same stands true for viruses.
this balance between microbes and us is also very important for our health. If we are robots, there go all our trillion good bacterial cells that live on our skin! not to mention all the microbes that live inside of us.
I reckon this world would be a bit of a different place for the bacteria, viruses and us. Can you imagine, me as a robot? NEAT 😀
That sounds like the start of an awesome sci-fi novel! (Can I steal your idea??)
Like Sam said, bacteria are pretty good at surviving! There are these types of bacteria called “extremophiles”, which literally means “love extreme conditions”. They can live in freezing cold caves under layers of ice, or they can live under the ocean right next to boiling water being spewed out of volcanoes!
So while a lot of bacteria like living in animal/human bodies, or in plants, there are definitely some that could survive if we lived in ROBOTOPOLIS (that’s the title of our new sci-fi book, okay? 😛 )
Hey cookechicken1 we meet again! Cool question, very creative!
If there were no humans or living animals, only robots, then yes, bacteria could survive. There are heaps of different bacteria that survive in the environment (soil, water, acid even!) and never even infect humans or animals. So as long as the earth was the same (except without the animals and humans) they would be happy without us!
Viruses are different though. They need living things to survive, as they use our own cells against us to make new virus. So without their hosts (us or animals) they are gone. BUT, there are some viruses that just infect bacteria, called bacteriophages! Since there would be bacteria still happy in the environment, these viruses should be happy enough too!
So to sum up, you would lose some bacteria and lots of viruses, but if the world was still the world, then there will still be plenty left!
1
Cookedchicken1 I like these types of questions, they really make us scientists think because there are so many things to take into account. A part of me agrees with what Sam says and the other part doesn’t.
Yes its true there are bacteria that live in all sorts of environments, some very exotic like hydro-thermal vents near volcanoes but many environments man and bacteria live very closely together. Our actions till have an impact on their environment and change the number and types of bacteria available at a given point in time. So for example everytime you flush the toilet, your waste is treated at the wastewater plant, here you have a very complicated bacteria community, the more people flush and poop, the more complex the bacteria. So if we are robots and robots can’t poop well you will lose a fair few bacteria. The same goes for food, bacteria are used a lot in food manufacture. So if as robots we don’t eat food, well again, we might lose some microbes. On the other hand as robots we need oil to function, and run smoothly, the oil might increase the number and types of oil degrading bacteria. cool balance between us and microbes! I think our daily actions do have an impact on bacteria. If we as robots start doing things different, we can expect there to be a change in the type and number of bacteria we see. The same stands true for viruses.
this balance between microbes and us is also very important for our health. If we are robots, there go all our trillion good bacterial cells that live on our skin! not to mention all the microbes that live inside of us.
I reckon this world would be a bit of a different place for the bacteria, viruses and us. Can you imagine, me as a robot? NEAT 😀
1
Hi cookedchicken1!
That sounds like the start of an awesome sci-fi novel! (Can I steal your idea??)
Like Sam said, bacteria are pretty good at surviving! There are these types of bacteria called “extremophiles”, which literally means “love extreme conditions”. They can live in freezing cold caves under layers of ice, or they can live under the ocean right next to boiling water being spewed out of volcanoes!
So while a lot of bacteria like living in animal/human bodies, or in plants, there are definitely some that could survive if we lived in ROBOTOPOLIS (that’s the title of our new sci-fi book, okay? 😛 )
1
Definitely! Metal loving bacteria would love it : )
1