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Is there a difference?
Yes, I could Google, but all the scientific jargon (I'm a layperson)...
I should know, but frankly it seems I might not. In writing up a pro-Mars piece (mini-blogger), I realized I'd used the word "bacterial" instead of "microbial" ... and later questioned it.
So I'm asking while admitting possible unforgivable ignorance. :-p But it does seem they're used interchangeably.
Original registration - May 2002
[i]I want that Million Year Picnic on Mars[/i]
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Wikipedia: Microorganism or microbe
Short answer: microbes are single-cell organisms. Bacteria are a specific type. Archaea are not bacteria, they're older and more primitive. Eukaryota (Eukaryotic cells) are different again; all multi-cellular organisms on Earth are made of eukaryotic cells, but some eukaryotic organisms are still single cell. For example, yeast is a eukaryote, but because they are single-cell organisms they are microbes.
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Wikipedia: Microorganism or microbe
Short answer: microbes are single-cell organisms. Bacteria are a specific type. Archaea are not bacteria, they're older and more primitive. Eukaryota (Eukaryotic cells) are different again; all multi-cellular organisms on Earth are made of eukaryotic cells, but some eukaryotic organisms are still single cell. For example, yeast is a eukaryote, but because they are single-cell organisms they are microbes.
Thank you.
Original registration - May 2002
[i]I want that Million Year Picnic on Mars[/i]
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