Researchers that were sampling sediment off the coast of Namibia have discovered the largest bacteria ever known, the Thiomargarita namibiensis. The largest of these single-celled microbes, which is 0.1 - 0.3 millimeter wide but some reach up to a size of 3/4 of a millimeter this size is visible to the naked eye, and is about as big as a the head of a fruit fly or the period at the end of this sentence and it is almost 100 times larger than the previous bacterial record-holder. Although Thiomargarita namibiensis currently has no positive or negative affects on humans researchers are still interested in it, and not because it is so big but because it appears to be a storage container for both sulfur and nitrogen.

The researchers who discovered the bacteria named it Thiomargarita namibiensis which translates to Sulfur Pearl of Namibia. It is named this because the bacteria shines kind...