en
Download

Micro World

How small is Thermus aquaticus?

Thermus aquaticus is about 5 µm long.

What is measured: heat-loving bacterium, cell length

Thermus aquaticus (5 µm) drawn to scale beside an E. coli bacterium (2 µm) and a red blood cell (7.5 µm)
Drawn to scale, from left to right: E. coli bacterium (2 µm), Thermus aquaticus (5 µm) and Red blood cell (7.5 µm).

Compare

How big is that, really?

  • As long as about 3 E. coli bacteria end to end
  • About 67% of the width of a red blood cell
  • About 4 would fit across a cloud droplet
  • About 50× the width of a flu virus

Learn

Facts about Thermus aquaticus

Thermus aquaticus lives in hot springs and its heat-stable enzyme, Taq polymerase, made PCR possible.

Source: ASM, Thermus aquaticus; Nature, PCR history

Micro World

NameSizeCompared with Thermus aquaticus
Aspergillus niger Spore4 µm0.8×
Clostridium difficile4 µm0.8×
Cryptosporidium parvum Oocyst5 µmsame size
Chlorella Algae Cell5 µmsame size
Candida albicans5 µmsame size
Halobacterium salinarum5 µmsame size
Thermus aquaticus5 µmthis page
Human T Lymphocyte7 µm1.4×
Human B Lymphocyte7 µm1.4×
Cryptococcus neoformans8 µm1.6×

Test your sense of scale

Which is bigger: Thermus aquaticus or Aspergillus niger Spore?

Topics

More sizes like this