How useful is the ‘war’ metaphor as a way of understanding human relationships with bacteria?
We have the common perception that bacteria are the enemy. There are actually only some bacteria, in fact very, very few bacteria, that are dangerous to humans. The overwhelming majority of bacteria are good for us. If bacteria were to disappear from human environments, everything would close down – everything would stop. Our health is dependent on the bacteria in us and on us. Our food production is dependent on bacteria: in fermentation, to make bread, coffee, chocolate and beer, etc. So, to me, the war metaphor is not a good one. What are the new ways of seeing microbes that are currently emerging? One of the things we need to bear in mind is that the planet as a whole is driven by a cycling of nutrients, like sulphur, phosphorous, nitrogen and carbon. Micro-organisms supply most of these services – such as the oxygen we breathe, the recycling of cellulose into usable forms of carbon, the cycling of sulphur, the production of nitrogen for plant growth and fertilisation. If you take
