ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology

Imagine you have a toy box full of different types of toys - some are cars, some are dolls, and some are blocks. When you want to organize your toys, you might decide to put all the cars together, all the dolls together, and all the blocks together. This way, it's easier to find the toy you want to play with.

In the same way, scientists who study tiny living things called microbes (like bacteria and fungi) have a big toy box full of different types of microbes. They need to organize their microbes so they can study them more easily.

The International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology is like a big book where these scientists can write down how they organized their microbes. They might group together microbes that look similar or that have similar behaviors, like how some cars may all have four wheels and need gas to move.

When scientists write down their groupings in the journal, it helps other scientists who study microbes to understand how they can organize their own toy boxes of microbes. This makes it easier for them to understand and study different types of microbes, which can help us learn more about how they live and interact with the world around us.