BIOL1993 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, Petri Dish, Louis Pasteur
27 Dec 2019
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Document Summary
Describe the history of microbiology and the idea of spontaneous generation; pasteur"s germ theory. Robert hooke described the structure of blue moulds (hooke"s microscope allowed observations of around 30x magnification) With more powerful microscopes antonie van leeuwenhoek discovered wee animalcules this is the first recording of bacteria. Louis pasteur debunks the theory of spontaneous generation (swan-necked flask experiment: spontaneous generation: non-living objects can give rise to living organisms. Alexander fleming discovers penicillin: fleming came across a petri dish with a mould growing on it and all around the mould, bacterial colonies were dead mould was penicillin the discovery of many other antibiotics followed. New opportunities: advanced molecular techniques, very sophisticated microscopy, enormous range of growth media, whole genomes available for hundreds of viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa. New challenges: emerging diseases, drug resistance, immunosuppression via hiv/aids and transplant therapies, keeping food safe without preservatives/cooking, global warming, bioterrorism.
