The Loss of a Good Word

by Elio
 

Photomicrograph of nanobacteria from ice cores. Courtesy of V. I. Miteva and J. E. Brenchley

A recent report goes a long way towards dispelling the notion that "nanobacteria" found in human blood are living entities. They seem to be inorganic precipitates, instead. Fine with me. What is less fine is that those making the original claim have mangled a perfectly good term and perhaps rendered it useless. Many, if not most, bacteria in the environment are very small, some passing through filters that retain "regular" bacteria. See our previous post entitled Old, small, cold… or a most in­formative review. These tiny organisms deserve to be called nanobacteria. This may be a lost cause. When entering "nanobacteria" in Google, the first 100 hits (out of 186,000) are about the apparently spurious entities, none about real bacteria. Abuse of words happens.
 
 

 
 

 
 

Comments

[Cesar Sanchez]

Science News has published an interesting article summarizing the nanobacteria/nanoparticles controversy:

"Rest in peace nanobacteria, you were not alive after all", by Tina Hesman Saey (April 23, 2008).

Available at http://tinyurl.com/4f4l7t