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There are 10 million trillion microbes on the ocean floor for every human being on the planet

… according to the newest estimates just released by German biologists.

Based on the mass of a single E. coli bacterium being about 665 femtograms, that means that the ocean floor contains about 0.2 exagrams of microbial biomass, or somewhere in the neighborhood of 600,000 Empire State Buildings.

Oh, and that’s less than 10% of the previous estimates. We were WAYYYYYY off! More at Nature News. 

    • #science
    • #random facts
    • #that's a big number
  • 8 months ago
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  1. kcuhcttenneb likes this
  2. salem311 reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. salem311 likes this
  4. kimbot13 reblogged this from greatmindsofscience and added:
    MICROBESSSS!
  5. andrewhale reblogged this from greatmindsofscience
  6. universalnomad reblogged this from greatmindsofscience and added:
    I wonder how much is deep below ground in the athenosphere and like places,
  7. greatmindsofscience reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  8. baevie reblogged this from scinerds
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  10. ahappywormhole reblogged this from utopiamatter and added:
    You go, Microbes! You go!
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  15. bonedust reblogged this from jtotheizzoe and added:
    so that’s like...one … add infinite … multiply...a big...
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  22. bobspacedout reblogged this from loverandnotafighter and added:
    Astonishing! There can be no doubt that our planet is a living organism, not just some random rock in the universe.
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I'm Joe Hanson, Ph.D. biologist and host/writer of PBS Digital Studios' It's Okay To Be Smart. Check out my "Episode Extras" here. There's a lot of amazing science out there. Let's go discover it together.

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