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Microorganisms can have very different [[habitat]]s, and live everywhere from the [[Geographic pole|poles]] to the [[equator]], [[desert]]s, [[geyser]]s, [[Rock (geology)|rocks]], and the [[deep sea]]. Some are [[extremophiles|adapted to extremes]] such as [[hyperthermophiles|very hot]] or [[psychrophile|very cold conditions]], others to [[piezophile|high pressure]], and a few, such as ''[[Deinococcus radiodurans]]'', to [[radioresistance|high radiation]] environments. Microorganisms also make up the [[microbiota]] found in and on all multicellular organisms. There is evidence that 3.45-billion-year-old [[Australia]]n rocks once contained microorganisms, the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth.<ref name="WU-20171218">{{cite web |last=Tyrell |first=Kelly April |title=Oldest fossils ever found show life on Earth began before 3.5 billion years ago |url=https://news.wisc.edu/oldest-fossils-ever-found-show-life-on-earth-began-before-3-5-billion-years-ago/ |date=18 December 2017 |publisher=[[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] |access-date=18 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="PNAS-2017">{{cite journal |last1=Schopf |first1=J. William |last2=Kitajima |first2=Kouki |last3=Spicuzza |first3=Michael J. |last4=Kudryavtsev |first4=Anatolly B. |last5=Valley |first5=John W. |title=SIMS analyses of the oldest known assemblage of microfossils document their taxon-correlated carbon isotope compositions |date=2017 |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|PNAS]] |volume=115 |issue=1 |pages=53–58 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1718063115 |pmid=29255053 |pmc=5776830 |bibcode=2018PNAS..115...53S|doi-access=free }}</ref>
Microbes are [[Microbes in human culture|important in human culture]] and [[health]] in many ways, serving to [[fermentation in food processing|ferment foods]] and [[sewage treatment|treat sewage]], and to [[algae fuel|produce fuel]], [[enzyme]]s, and other [[bioactive compound]]s. Microbes are essential tools in [[biology]] as [[model organism]]s and have been put to use in [[biological warfare]] and [[bioterrorism]]. Microbes are a vital [[soil microbiology|component of fertile soil]]. In the [[human body]], microorganisms make up the [[human microbiota]], including the essential [[gut flora]]. The [[pathogen]]s responsible for many [[infectious disease]]s are microbes and, as such, are the target of [[hygiene|hygiene measures]].
==Discovery==
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