There was a news story in Memphis recently about an outbreak of canine parvovirus that forced the local animal shelter to put down a number of dogs. (Ordinarily I’d feel a little bad for the hounds, but my elbow still hurts from the dog attack last month, so fuck 'em.) In reporting this story, one of the local TV stations went back and forth in calling parvo the result of a fungal, viral, and bacterial infection; it was pretty clear that the on-air reporter didn’t know the difference between them. I found this irksome, but someone in my circle opined I was being unreasonable; most people don’t know the difference between the various sorts of disease-causing microorganism, she said, adding that for all practical purposes there isn’t one.
Which brings us to the purpose of this thread. First, in the automated poll, tell us whether you think it is worth a news outlet’s while to use the right term in a story like the one mentioned in the first paragraph. Second, in the thread, tell us what you know about those four (okay, three) forms of life, without checking any reference other than your own grey matter. And that includes Wikipedia.
As always, persons who vote in the poll get their pick of an imaginary pastry teleported to them. Anyone who can define and pronounce “prion” gets an extra. Anyone who uses the spellings “ameba,” “bacterias,” “amoebae,” or “virii” will be beaten with a club.
I was all smug that I know the difference but other people don’t, but then I bothered to look up bacteria on wiki - I didn’t realize bacteria were eukariotic.
Anyway, yes. A news story should not assume people know the difference, and should certainly never give wrong information (nor conflate concepts so that wrong info is inferred).
Bacteria are single-celled organisms, and are a kingdom of life. Amoeba are also single celled, but are a specialized group, and are capable of sort of crawling about. Fungi are one of the Kingdoms of life, a little more closely related to animals than to plants. Viruses often aren’t considered alive, and don’t even have cells. They are just DNA. Prions don’t even have DNA, they are just mis-folded protein that can induce other of the same protein to also fold incorrectly, causing e.g. mad cow disease. I pronounce them to rhyme with bee, but I’m not certain that is the preferred way.
You didn’t ask, but even if everyone here can correctly differentiate between the four, it doesn’t mean your acquaintance is wrong that most people don’t know the difference. But that doesn’t absolve news reporters from finding out the difference.
(How many kingdoms are there now? Six? When I was in high school, it was four, but they couldn’t tell me what fungi were. Ten or fifteen years ago, I think five was the standard answer.)
I’m hardly an expert; my knowledge is at the Encyclopedia Britannica level, as I read it quite a bit. But I think you (or wikipedia) i wrong there; bacteria are prokaryotes. I just checked again.
[QUOTE=if you can’t guess this based on the last paragraph i feel bad for you]
procaryote
any organism that lacks a distinct nucleus and other organelles due to the absence of internal membranes. Bacteria are among the best-known prokaryotic organisms. The lack of internal membranes in prokaryotes distinguishes them from eukaryotes.
[/QUOTE]
And
[QUOTE=what did i just say]
Bacteria as prokaryotes
All living organisms on Earth are made up of one of two basic types of cells: eukaryotic cells, in which the genetic material is enclosed within a nuclear membrane, or prokaryotic cells, in which the genetic material is not separated from the rest of the cell. Traditionally, all prokaryotic cells were called bacteria and were classified in the prokaryotic kingdom Monera. However, their classification as Monera, equivalent in taxonomy to the other kingdoms—Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, and Protista—understated the remarkable genetic and metabolic diversity exhibited by prokaryotic cells relative to eukaryotic cells.
I can fully understand that a news reporter might get the infectious agent’s type wrong. They’re not scientists and everyone makes mistakes.
However, they should at least be consistent. Consistency tells me there’s a problem that could have been solved by fact-checking. Inconsistency tells me they don’t even understand why fact-checking would be relevant. If you can’t be bothered to fact-check something as simple as this, you shouldn’t be allowed to report for anything but the National Enquirer.
A newscast using them interchangeably is idiotic, and people saying it doesn’t matter is even more so. My memory of the differences in the groups is fairly vague, but I’ll take a shot.
Fungi are either good in salads or deadly, depending on the species. Some of them poop penicillin. Range in size from microscopic to bigger-than-a-breadbox.
Viruses are on the border of what we would even consider life? Very simple, not even a cell. Can lead to various diseases in humans from the flu to HIV. They also get in computers and try to sell you erectile dysfunction medication.
Bacteria are single-cellular, probably the first form of life to emerge in the primordial soup. Can also cause disease, but also serve a variety of critical functions to life on earth, from decaying dead plants and animals to cycle the nutrients back into the soil to outsourced cow digestion. If all bacteria disappeared tomorrow, most (all?) other life forms would follow.
Amoeba are still microscopic, but more complicated than bacteria. They have more specialized structures within the cell. They can locomote and eat things by absorbing them through their outer membrane (like Bob from Monsters vs Aliens or Honey Boo Boo’s mom).
“worth [their] while?” It will certainly help keep the public better informed, but if you’re asking whether it will increase viewership (and therefore advertising revenue), then the answer is no.
If you can tell me what their purpose is, then I can tell you whether it’s worth their while.
FWIW, I wish they would try to give people good information on science matters, since people are, on average, poorly educated in such matters. Maybe they don’t need to know the difference between a rocket engine and a jet engine, but if they understand more about bacteria and viruses, then maybe they’ll stop pestering their doctor for antibiotics when they have a cold, and if they do receive prescription antibiotics (for a real bacterial infection), maybe they’ll take the whole prescribed course instead of squirreling half of them away for some future infection.
I agree that consistency is important, as is knowing that their IS a difference between all of those things.
If you interview the expert and they say “it was caused by a virus” then even if you can’t tell a virus from a marmoset, you say “It was caused by a virus… The virus spread… The virus will be eradicated…” There’s no reason to substitute the expert’s facts with your own embellishments.
You should write to the TV station and call them out. That’s not a simple mistake by someone who isn’t a scientist, that is incorrect reporting.
I know the differences well enough. I couldn’t satisfy a microbiologist or pathologist with my explanations, but it’s probably about equivalent to a layperson’s ability to explain the difference between a mammal and a bird.
And yes, the media should attempt to be correct and educate, especially given all the misuse of antibiotics.
Fungi- vary from single celled yeast to at least one of the largest organisms on the planet. Make forests work. Cells not fully seperated from each other, slightly closer to animals than plants, most are composed of mycelium threads and we just see the fruiting bodies. Some predate on tiny worms, which is a bit freaky. Cause athlete’s foot and aspergillosis, but also make beer, so that’s about even. Pretty cool.
Viruses- tiny, aren’t exactly alive, can only reproduce within a host, but can sit there being not exactly alive for a very long time. Have RNA instead of DNA (I think) and some look like mini space landers. Flu and colds are viruses, as are quite a few other diseases. Not affected by antibiotics.
Bacteria- single cells, millions of the things everywhere, some have definite shapes and some can propel themselves with tiny hairs called cilia. Probably the commonest disease vector. Only things that are affected by antibiotics.
Amoebas- single celled, but bigger than bacteria. Move round and eat things, which looks jolly interesting down a microscope. Swim up your nose in hot springs and give you amoebic meningitis, also cause a form of dystentry.
I knew that some fungi prey on nematodes & such, but until this post I’d never seen “predate” used on this sense. The OED’s on your side, though.
I’m not sure if you’re jesting about prions. In addition to being the name of a sort of sea-bird, a prion is “an abnormal form of a normally harmless protein found in the brain that is responsible for a variety of fatal neurodegenerative diseases of both animals and humans called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.”
My definitions may be a little shakier than I’d like, but I do know the difference between birds and micro-organisms
Prions got enough news time here back during the whole ‘mad cow’ thing, but there was never a lot of detail, and I don’t know anything else about them. Oh, except that the BBC says ‘pry-on’, not ‘pree-on’.
You would think that the fact that it is called parvovirus might have clued them in a bit.:rolleyes:
The distinction between viruses and other types of infectious agents is, in fact, very important. Viruses are not affected by antibiotics, and the common practice of prescribing antibiotics, often due to patient demand, bu, in fact, quite uselessly, has probably played a major role in driving the evolution and spread of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria (and other infectious agents) that may soon render antibiotics almost entirely useless, and lead to unstoppable epidemics.
They are completely different things, anyone who stayed awake in high school biology should know the difference, and I have a B.S. in biology so yeah I definitely know the difference.
Bacteria unlike plant/animal cells have no nucleus.
Viruses are a strand of DNA or RNA surrounded by a protein shell that serves to get it into the cell it parasitizes; they are not independently living creatures.
Fungus…hmmm. It reproduces by spores, doesn’t photosynthesize and IIRC is genetically closer to animals than plants, but I don’t recall its other identifying features.
Prions are a form of mis-folded protein that when they contact other protein of the same type can cause it to re-fold itself in the same way the prion is.
At the very least they should bother to call their go-to medical talking head and get it right as what to call the particular infection, rather than wing it and use them indistinctly as synonyms for “microscopic pathogen”. I learned back in Middle School the at-the-time sequence of Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia, and it stuck with me.
