Because humanity is constantly threatened by so many old and new diseases caused by dangerous germs, it is easy to forget that not all microbes are either dangerous or destructive. During the golden age of microbiology, while scientists studied harmful germs, it became increasingly clear that a good many germs are relatively or completely harmless. In fact, researchers discovered that only a small fraction of the germs known to exist in nature cause disease. The vast majority have no effect on or are actually beneficial in one way or another to plants, animals, and humans. Moreover, scientists have established that, without certain kinds of germs, higher forms of life could not exist.

Germs Aid Nature's Cycles

Humans and other higher life-forms have always lived with and today continue to coexist with an abundance of harmless or beneficial germs at every...