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Oh boy! I am soooo excited!

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Microbiology

• The study of organisms too small to be seen without magnification (hence the name microorganisms or microbes)– bacteria

– viruses

– fungi

– protozoa

– helminths (worms)

– algae

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What is unique about microbes?

• Microbes are able to carry out life processes of growth, energy generation, and reproduction in a single cell.

• They have the ability to:– metabolize almost any food (carbon) sources (even some toxic

ones)– withstand unbelievable range of

• temperatures• atmospheric pressure• osmotic pressure• pH

• Most plant and animals exist as multi-cellular organisms.

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What do microbes do

• Ecology– nutrient production & energy flow– Decomposition– Symbiosis

• Processes significant to humans– production of foods, drugs & vaccines– bioremediation– causing disease– Notes pg 1.4-1.5

• Less than 0.01% of bacteria cause disease. – Most are beneficial to man and all other life forms

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We literally owe our lives to bacteria – Why?

• Photosynthesis – harnessing the energy from the sun for heterotrophs

• Photosynthesis – released O2 which accumulated allowing aerobic respiration

• O2 was converted to which ozone (O3)resulted in the formation of the ozone layer that protects organisms from UV radiation allowing evolution of terrestrial (land-dwelling) organisms

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Microbes have been around a lot longer than us

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Branches of study within microbiology

• Immunology

• Public health microbiology & epidemiology

• Food, dairy and aquatic microbiology

• Biotechnology

• Genetic engineering & recombinant DNA technology

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Impact of pathogens

• Nearly 2,000 different microbes cause diseases

• 10 B infections/year worldwide

• 13 M deaths from infections/year worldwide

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Characteristics of microbes

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Scientific Method

• Form a hypothesis - a tentative explanation that can be supported or refuted by observation & experimentation

• A lengthy process of experimentation, analysis & testing either supports or refutes the hypothesis.

• Results must be published & repeated by other investigators.

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• If hypothesis is supported by a growing body of evidence & survives rigorous scrutiny, it moves to the next level of confidence - it becomes a theory

• Evidence of a theory is so compelling that the next level of confidence is reached - it becomes a Law or principle