What is a protozoa? Detailed answer

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What is a protozoa? Detailed answer

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What is a protozoa?

If you put a drop of pond water under a microscope, you can see millions of tiny creatures swimming in it! These are "protozoa" - the simplest single-celled animal organisms.

All protozoa exist in water or damp places. Scientists are interested in exploring them, as these single-celled organisms perform the functions necessary to maintain the life of the animal. They hunt, consume food, digest it and assimilate it. They breathe, burn food and dispose of waste. They also have the function of reproduction.

Protozoa reproduce by simple fission, as well as by "growths" that form on their surface, which, when burst, create a new creature.

More than 15 different types of protozoa are known, so scientists have divided them into subgroups or classes. The two main classes are called "rhizopods" and "ciliates".

The rhizopods have randomly arranged "false limbs" that can be retracted back into the body. To this class belong the so-called "foraminiphora", or drillers. They are equipped with the thinnest shell with the smallest holes. They live in warm and quiet sea spaces. After their death, the shell sinks to the seabed, and for hundreds of years, deposits of chalk form at the bottom.

Ciliates are a more complex species of protozoa. Small hairs on their surface are used as oars when moving in the water. More advanced forms of protozoa that have similar hairs are called "cilia".

Some species of protozoa are parasites and live in humans and animals. At certain stages of their existence, they form disputes. Some species of protozoa cause diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What gives food its flavor?

The whole process of taste perception is quite complex. We must start with the fact that on the tongue we have tiny, wart-like bumps that are responsible for our taste sensations. They are called taste buds ("papilas", using the scientific Latin term). A person has about three thousand of them. Taste sensations are caused by the response of the sensory hairs in these papillae to the molecules of liquids when they hit them. Only substances in solution, where the atoms are free to move, can produce the sensation of taste; a glass bead, for example, will not.

Anything that makes the atoms move faster, like heat, enhances the taste experience. That's why hot coffee tastes more bitter than cold, roasted salted brisket more salty, and hot meat dishes taste better than cold. Our taste buds register three or four taste sensations: sweet, bitter, salty, and perhaps also sour.

Different parts of the surface of the tongue are sensitive to different taste sensations: the back of the tongue - to bitter, on the sides - to sour and salty, the tip of the tongue - to sweet. Since almost all of our food consists of different components, it causes complex taste sensations.

In addition, taste sensations are never experienced in their pure form; they are always complicated by olfactory ones. When we eat, we also feel heat, cold, atmospheric pressure. All these sensations add up to what we call the "taste of food." And it must also be said that often what we consider "taste" is actually a smell. For example, coffee, tea, apples, oranges, lemons and others stimulate the organ of smell to a greater extent than the organ of taste.

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Lemon and sun for water disinfection 01.05.2012

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University believe that sunlight and lemon juice make water drinkable.

Scientists have found that adding lemon juice to water and then exposing the bottle to sunlight significantly reduces the amount of harmful bacteria such as E. coli.

Access to clean drinking water continues to be a major problem in many countries. Worldwide, half of all hospital beds are occupied by patients who become ill as a result of drinking poor-quality water.

But it turns out that the problem can be partially solved with the help of sunlight and adding lemon juice to the water. The recipe is as follows: 2 ml of lemon or lime juice is added to 30 liters of water. This is quite a bit and does not spoil the taste of water. Then a bottle of water is exposed to the Sun: from 6 hours on a bright fine day to 48 hours on an overcast one.

Experiments using cultures of E. coli bacteria, bacteriophage MS2 and noroviruses showed that in the process of disinfection with lemon juice and sunlight, a noticeable decrease in the number of bacteria was observed after 30 minutes. In general, this method of water disinfection is comparable in result to boiling water or other home cleaning methods. True, it should be noted that the number of noroviruses in the water decreased slightly - alas, the technique is not universal.

However, cleaning with lemon juice and sunlight can be much more effective and safer than using chemicals and potentially hazardous substances like TiO 2 (titanium dioxide) or H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide).

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