Delving into Microbiology
By Ellen Whyte
VIRUSES and single cell creatures such as bacteria, protozoa, yeast, and some algae are commonly referred to as microbes, life forms that are undetected without a microscope.
Understanding how these tiny organisms live and how their presence affects the world we live in is a significant part of Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) as well as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) science curriculum.
In the early stages, the focus is on common microbes and how their presence in soil, water, air, and the human body affects us. In later stages, you are required to distinguish between viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa to identify differences between single cell and more complicated life forms; and to discuss the effects of water, sunlight, nutrients and temperature on microscopic life.
Most textbooks reduce this subject to pencil drawings and lists of facts, so if you’re bored re-reading standard presentations, you’ll be pleased to know there are some excellent resources online.
* Microbe Zoo at http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo. Find out what tiny creatures live in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the ground we walk on. After this basic overview, go for extra essay credit by reading Space Adventure, the section that focuses on the possible future relationship between people and microbes where the talents of various microbes might help us with interstellar travel, predict possible alien life forms, and suggest how we can work together to adapt hostile environments for our own use.
Ideal for younger students who are just starting their science courses.
* Cells Alive at http://www.cellsalive.com. Ideal for SPM students, this interactive textbook can be a lifesaver if you just can’t get to grips with your formal biology textbook.
Articles are written in simple English and sprinkled with excellent images as well as interactive quizzes, Quick Time movies and other razzle dazzle. If you’re in a hurry, skip directly to the Cell Biology, Microbiology, Immunology or Microscopy sections.
* Microbe World at http://www.microbe.org. This huge resource written to inspire secondary school students covers everything from basic homework help to pictures of the deadliest and weirdest microbes alive today.
Check Meet the Microbes to beef up your general knowledge, Meet the Scientists to discover if a career in microbiology is for you, and Did You Know to discover which microbes lurk on your hands and how they cause illnesses such as the common cold.
The News section has updates discussing the weird and wonderful microbe discoveries, and the Resources section for lists of good online resources and a series of simple experiment ideas guaranteed to help spur your microbiology knowledge.
* Berkeley University Microbiology at http://www.ucmp.berkeley. edu/help/topic.html is an ideal site for Form 4 and 5 science students. Click on Microbiology for the menu leading to illustrated notes introducing cell biology, fungi and fungal organisms, prokaryotes and viruses and protests. Each page is illustrated and contains links to other pages online.
What is lovely about these pages is that they present the basics and then introduce some less discussed issues such as the ecology of archaeans and bacteria fossil records. Although the titles hint at complex concepts, the presentations are quite simple and have some excellent illustrations.
The sites above will get you through school science classes but if you are looking to widen your general knowledge, or present a killer science project that will boost your grade, there are two more sites well worth checking out.
* First Forms Of Life On Earth at http:// www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/ jeffares_poole.html.
Some evolutionary biologists believe bacteria were the first forms of life, but as this paper points out, others suggest life is developed from organisms made largely of ribose nucleic acid (RNA).
Supporters of this theory believe that further study of human cells will reveal more about the origins of life.
* Why Files Antibiotic Resistance at http://whyfiles.org/ 038badbugs/index.html.
After Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928, doctors prescribed antibiotics for all sorts of conditions. However, the more doctors prescribed, the faster the microbes became resistant.
In some cases, microbes became immune to all common treatments. Where antibiotics had been hailed as “super-drugs”, bacteria were now developing into “super-bugs”.
This Web site delves into the arms race between scientists and microbes, looks into the basis and scale of the problem, and discusses what is being done to solve it.
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