It’s 1854 in London. The third major cholera pandemic was racing through the city. Spreading from the Ganges delta of India since 1837, it’s claimed over a million lives mostly among Asia, Europe, and North America. Within the Soho district of Westminster, London, things weren’t looking good. The London sewer system had not reached Soho,…
If you’re a microbiologist, the acronym HGT may have you thinking about horizontal gene transfer, the transfer of genes between microbes. But during the months of November and December, HGT takes on a different meaning: holiday gift transfer. As part of the annual #SecretSerratia holiday gift exchange, pairs of microbiologists exchange gifts, usually science and…
Cultivating microorganisms in the lab has not always been what it is now. Thanks to Angelina Fanny Hesse (1850-1934), microbiologists now have a solid medium to grow microbes in the lab. Before Hesse stepped onto the scene, bacteriologists were cultivating microorganisms on an assortment of food – potato, coagulated egg whites, and meat. In 1819,…
On this date in 1843, Robert Koch, the founder of modern microbiology was born. And on December 10, 1905, one day before his 62nd birthday, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on tuberculosis.