Roughly, what is the total weight of all bacteria on this planet?
by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on November 30th, 2007 First-Ever Scientific Estimate Of Total Bacteria On Earth Shows Far Greater Numbers Than Ever Known Before ScienceDaily (Aug. 25, 1998) — ATHENS, Ga. — They’re everywhere. Bacteria are the huddled masses of the microbial world, performing tasks that include everything from causing disease to fixing nitrogen in the soil. Now, for the first time, a team of researchers from the University of Georgia has made a direct estimate of the total number of bacteria on Earth — and the number makes the globe’s human population look downright puny. ——————————————————————————– The group, led by microbiologist William. B. Whitman, estimates the number to be five million trillion trillion — that’s a five with 30 zeroes after it. Look at it this way. If each bacterium were a penny, the stack would reach a trillion light years. These almost incomprehensible numbers give only a sketch of the vast pervas
