Thomas Verne

Animals may be cute and cool, but plants and microbes… they are are even cooler. Did you know that many bacteria make little engines to push them selves along, and that these motors are so small that you could fit billions of them on a full stop, and some bacteria are so tough that they can survive in boiling water some even prefer it. While the microbial cosmos may seem a distant concept it is surprisingly close to home, in fact every one has microbes living all across our skin and in our gut, sounds gross right. However if it were not for these microbes we would not be who we are as the help us digest food, protect us and even can affect our personalities. Another place where lots of microbes grow and live is the soil, did you know that there are more living things in a table spoon of soil than there are humans on the earth. Like how the bacteria on us is important to our health and well being, the microbes in the soil is important to plants health. Some feed the plants, others can protect plants from diseases. While most microbes in the soil are good for plants there are some that can make them sick just like some microbes can make us sick. While we cant catch a cold from a sick plant, plant colds can have big impacts on our lives, some have ended wars in a day!!!

Well who cares if a plant is sick, well farmers do and we all should as plants are food for us and our animals and are important for almost every living thing on the planet (except for the few weirdo bacteria that live a couple of kilometres underground). While many of you may not see plants get sick too often plant diseases can be very common and problematic for farmers. That is where I come in, I as a scientist am trying to invent a product to protect potatoes (the best vegetable by a long shot) from a common disease called powdery scab, which costs farmers a lot of money every year.