Germ theory of disease is the theory that human infectious diseases are caused by specific variety of microorganisms including but not limited to bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses. This very important theory of microbiology was postulated by Louis Pasteur, a French microbiologist in 1857 when he tried to unmask the reason why beer and wine […]
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General Microbiology
Spontaneous generation (abiogenesis) is the mistaken hypothesis that living organisms are capable of being generated from non-living things. Mankind for many centuries (even till the time of Aristotle in 4th century BC) previously believed that non-living things such as meat and even decaying organic matter can generate living things (e.g. maggot). The belief that life
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General Microbiology
Other landmarks and discoveries in the field of microbiology are summarized in Table 1. Table 1. Synopsis of some milestones in microbiology Event Discoverer Date Discovery of Petri dish (plate) Richard Petri 1887 Discovery of nutrient agar (agar-agar) Fanny A. Eilshemius & Dr. Walter Hesse 1881 Release of first edition of Bargey’s Manual Professor David
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General Microbiology
Born on the 6th of April, 1928, James Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, who is best known as a co-discoverer of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in 1953. Watson co-discovered the structure of the DNA with Francis Crick (an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist) in 1953. Watson and Crick
Francis Crick was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist. He co-discovered the molecular structure of the genetic material (DNA) with James Watson in 1953. Francis Crick showed in his work that genetic information flows from the DNA to RNA and then to protein; and he referred to this very important concept of molecular biology
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General Microbiology
Frederick Griffith was a British bacteriologist who performed transformation experiments that suggested that DNA was the hereditary material. His focus was on the epidemiology and pathology of bacterial pneumonia – which led him to develop the principle of bacterial transformation – which allow scientist to transform a bacterium through the introduction of exogenous DNA carrying
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General Microbiology
Sergei Winogradsky was a Ukrainian-Russian microbiologist, ecologist and soil scientist who was among the first to delve into a different area of microbiology that involved the investigation of microbes in the environment that did not cause disease. Winogradsky pioneered the concept of bacteria (like nitrifying and purple-sulphur bacteria) that cycle nitrogen and sulphur compounds in
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General Microbiology
Martinus Beijerinck was a Dutch microbiologist and botanists who like Sergei Winogradsky began examining the role of non-infectious microorganisms in the soil. They both reported that microorganisms play important role in nutrient recycling in the ecosystem (particularly those of nitrogen, carbon and sulphur) as well as in the process of nitrogen-fixation by symbiotic or free-living
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General Microbiology
Gerhard Domagk was a German pathologist and bacteriologist who reported in 1935 that prontosil (a red dye used for staining leather) was active against pathogenic Staphylococci and Streptococci in mice. It was later that the two French scientists Jacques and Therese Trefonel discovered in the same year that prontosil was broken down within the body
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General Microbiology
Systematic work on antimicrobial drugs was first initiated by the Germanphysician Paul Ehrlich. Ehrlich worked in the fields of haematology, immunology, and chemotherapy. He coined the term “chemotherapy” and also developed the concept of “selective toxicity in the early 1900s”, which is “the ability of an agent to inhibit or kill pathogenic microorganisms without any
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General Microbiology