article_snippet: Scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley, captured photos of 'ultra-small bacteria' for the first time.
article_snippet: photos of 'ultra-small bacteria' may end a debate which has been raging for two decades.about whether the tiny bacteria exist or not.
article_snippet: The comprehensive electron microscopy images and DNA-based description of the microbes researchers were able to obtain seem to indicate almost 150 of the miniscule bacteria are very small - but very real.
article_snippet: almost 150 of the miniscule bacteria were found in groundwater and are believed to be rather common.
article_snippet: In almost 150 of the miniscule bacteria abstract, Scientists from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California, Berkeley wrote: 'Ultrastructural features potentially related to cell and genome size minimization include tightly packed spirals inferred to be DNA, few densely packed ribosomes and a variety of pili-like structures that might enable inter-organism interactions that compensate for biosynthetic capacities inferred to be missing from genomic data. '
article_snippet: The results suggest that extremely small cell size is associated with these relatively common, yet little known organisms.'
article_snippet: Findings about almost 150 of the miniscule bacteria were published in the Nature Communications journal.
article_snippet: Banfield said: 'These newly described ultra-small bacteria are an example of a subset of the microbial life on earth that we know almost nothing about. '
article_snippet: These newly described ultra-small bacteria are detected in many environments and These newly described ultra-small bacteria probably play important roles in microbial communities and ecosystems. '
article_snippet: But we don't yet fully understand what These newly described ultra-small bacteria do.'
article_snippet: Luef said These newly described ultra-small bacteria research was 'a significant step in characterizing the size, shape, and internal structure of ultra-small cells'.
highlights_snippet: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, scientists have taken pictures of 'ultra small bacteria'
  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley believe 'ultra small bacteria'
   are the smallest form of life on Earth .
  
highlights_snippet: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley were able to get a DNA-based description of the microbes .
  
highlights_snippet: Bacteria were found in groundwater and are believed to be fairly common .