History of Microbiology Chapter 1
Microbiology The study of organisms too small to be seen individually with the naked eye during part or all of their life cycle.
Types of Microbes
Scientific Nomenclature Bacillus anthracis Genus Species
Why does it have to be Latin?
The History before Microbiology
The Dawn of Microbiology
The Golden Age of Microbiology
“In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind.” Louis Pasteur, 1854
“From my numerous observations, I conclude that these tubercle bacilli occur in all tuberculosis disorders, and that they are distinguishable from all other microorganisms.” Robert Koch, 1882
“…it appears that all that is requisite is to dress the wound with some material capable of killing these septic germs…” Joseph Lister, 1867
The Age of Antibiotics
“One sometimes finds what one is not looking for.” Alexander Fleming
“It looks like a miracle.” Howard Florey, upon testing penicillin in mice
“From the moment he is born to the moment he dies, man is subject to the activities of numerous microbes.” Selman Waksman, 1952
The Post Antibiotic Age?
“The genie is out of the bottle. it will happen again “The genie is out of the bottle... it will happen again... the only question is when and where.” Donald Law, 2002 on the emergence of VRSA
“If we generate a lot of this form of TB we will have pushed ourselves back to the pre-antibiotic days of the last century” Jeremiah Chakaya on the XDR-TB epidemic
2008 49 Countries 2010 58 Countries
Remember that not all Microbes are bad.
“There is no Age of Dinosaurs or Age of Man, it has always been and will always be the Age of Bacteria” Stephen Jay Gould