Cyanobacteria(formerly called blue-green algae) are bacteria that have chlorophyl. They can live in many different conditions, some types can even live in geothermal vents. Cyanobacteria are responsible for the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere millions of years ago and a lot of the current oxygen generated, and have current applications in biofuels. cyanobacteria are also being used to research photosynthesis. There are mucus membranes secreted by the cyanobacteria enabling colony formation, with colonies of up to several thousand bacteria. In colonies, cyanobacteria can even differentiate to form cells with different functions such as fixing nitrogens. Cyanobacteria can develop other metabolic systems depending on their envirenment so they do not 100% rely on photosynthesis.Cyanobacteria are responsible for what we call algae blooms, which are usually benificial, but sometimes harmful. The harmful algea blooms release toxins into the water which can harm fish and other organisms living there. Cyanobacteria can produce biomass from CO₂ faster than eukaryotes that have photosynthesis. They are sometimes grown at the top of buildings in bioreactors so the biomass they produce can be harvested and used as fuel. They also have applications in detoxifying the environment. It has also been shown that certain cancers will go into apoptosis(controlled cell death) when exposed to cyanobacteria. Cyanobacteria are capable of moving on there own sometimes, and with larger colonies, each individual one is more likely to be able to move on its own. Cyanobacteria usually live in biofilms(extracellular materials produced for cell colonies to live on).
