• Question: If microscopic creatures were life sized, then would they be a dainger to humnity?

    Asked by barney to Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      There are TRILLIONS of microscopic creatures in the world. So if they were all human-sized instead of microscopic, there would be no room on the planet for other lifeforms!

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      errr… hard to say. It would depend on how small they were. If they were bacteria, then no, because they wouldn’t have a skeleton or hard outer shell. On the other hand, these things would scare the !%*$ out of me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/opoterser/sets/72157600033217670/

    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      By ‘life sized’, do you mean ‘on the scale of elephants’ and other animals which are larger than us (more maximum scariness)? Yes, I suppose that if, say, a microscopic creature such as a midge, or a flea were the size of an elephant, then I would have thought that they might make life a little inconvenient for us!

      It reminds me of the film ‘Starship Troopers’ – but I can’t say it was an amazing film, and it is super gory. But anyway, the aliens in that were like gigantic insects, and they ate humans like it was going out of fashion.

    • Photo: Joanna Watson

      Joanna Watson answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      If microscopic creatures were suddenly made really big then they might be able to eat humans or something. It wouldn’t really happen though, because they wouldn’t have all the structures inside them that they would need to be big – like a blood circulation system or a complicated digestive system.

      They also wouldn’t be able to do the same kind of damage to humans as some microscopic things, like bacteria and viruses, do now because they wouldn’t be small enough to get inside our bodies and travel to cells and damage cells.

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