As we've learned, life has a great diversity of strategies to perform its work, and the organisms that are often under appreciated and misunderstood --the microbes--do a significant amount of work that is important for other living things. Archaea, bacteria and eukaryotes like fungi and protists are all around us, if we know where to look. Many of these organisms can only be observed with the aid of a microscope, but others make their presence known in striking ways. Below is a time-lapse video of a yellow slime-mold (a type of amoeba) growing in a British forest.
Tiny protists can also be nature's great artists. Foraminiferans, dinoflagellates, and radiolarans in particular are known for their beautiful shells, called tests. Here are some pictures of radiolarans, and here are some pictures of many types of cells under the microscope. The Micropolitan Museum has many galleries of microscopic organisms in full color!
And finally, in preparation for our upcoming studies of fungi, learn about how trees communicate with one another through an Internet of fungi--the "wood wide web"!
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