Microbiology

• Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was the father of microbiology and invented the first microscope
• Louis Pasteur discovered that fermentation is caused by living organisms, not spontaneous generation.
• Joseph Lister introduced antiseptic surgery techniques using carbolic acid (phenol) as an antimicrobial agent.
• Robert Koch developed methods to isolate pure cultures of bacteria and proved that specific diseases are caused by specific pathogens.
• Eduard Buchner - discovered the fermentation process of yeast which lead to innovation of biochemistry
• Fanny Hesse invented agar for culturing
• Florence Nightingale - pioneered modern nursing practices and advocated for improved sanitation and hygiene in hospitals
• John Snow innovated epidermiology and infection control
• Lady M.W Montagu help discover immunology
• Edward Jenner created smallpox vaccine, preventing millions of deaths worldwide
• Paul Erlich invented “magic bullets” which led to chemotherapy
• Carolus Linnaeus was the Father of Taxonomy
• Hans Christian Gram invented the Gram stain
• Ignaz Semmelweis pushed for hand washing to reduce deaths in hospitals
• Microbiology is the study of microorganisms
• Biochemistry studies chemical reactions of living things
• Etiology studies the cause of diseases
• Epidemiology studies of the spread of disease in humans
• Immunology studies of the body‘s specific defenses to pathogens
• Chemotherapy is the use of chemicals to treat diseases
• Four steps to the scientific method: Observe the world around you, Create an Hypothesis, Test with a control group and see if it rejects or fails to reject hypothesis.
• A hypothesis is a testable prediction that is supported by evidence and is subject to falsification.
• A theory is a set of propositions that are logically interconnected and are supported by evidence.
• Order of the Taxonomy Hierarchy: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
• The three domains of life include Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota
• The 5 kingdoms of life are Animal, Plant, Fungi, Protista and Monera
• Prokaryotes have no nucleus while eukaryotes do
• Spontaneous generation is the idea that living things can arise from non-living matter.
• Koch Postulates Set of rules for proving that a microorganism causes a specific disease. 1.The Agent must be found in every case of the disease and be absent from healthy host 2.Agent must be isolated and grown outside the host 3.When agent is introduced to a healthy and susceptible host, the host must get the disease 4.Same agent must be found in the diseased experimental host