Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: Morgenstern, Markus on 17/09/2011 09:30:02
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Morgenstern, Markus asked the Naked Scientists:
Hello Chris,
My daughter Pauline (she is 5) asked me today about how are bacteria able to stick to human skin?
By the way I like your show (http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/podcasts/) very much!
Thanks!
Markus
What do you think?
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As objects decrease in size, the force necessary to adhere to something becomes very low. A drop of water for example will adhere to a surface through electrostatic adhesion alone. Bacteria really don't need to do much other than attract the moisture on our skin in the first place.