Whoosh! That's the sound we hear as we journey into the wonderful world of the small in a new microbiology children's book by Lindsey Millar. Today, we chat with Lindsey on about her process for creating books, the switch from the lab bench to science communication, and more!
(more…)Tag: meet a microbiologist
Meet Microbiologist Ruth Ella Moore, the First Black Woman to Earn a PhD in the Natural Sciences
A Public Health Detective Story: John Snow, Cholera, and the Germ Theory of Disease
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, but a large influx of people had. Animal droppings from cowsheds and slaughter houses lined the streets. Many cellars had cesspools underneath, formed from the sewage and filth seeping in from outside. Making matters worse, the London government was dumping waste into the River Thames and contaminating the water supply. (more…)
Fanny Hesse, the Woman Who Introduced Agar to Microbiology
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, an epidemic of “bloody bread” broke out in Padua, Italy. The Venetian pharmacist Bartolomeo Bizio isolated the culprit on polenta and called it Serratia marcescens. Then in 1872, Joseph Schroeter published a paper demonstrating the separation of bacteria of different colors on cooked potatoes. Like Bizio’s experiments, Schroeter was able to transfer the microorganisms to fresh media over and over. (more…)
Meet a Microbiologist: Marcos Voutsinos
While most of us worry about the ripeness of our bananas, Marcos Voutsinos has been preoccupied with something else: the banana freckle. Despite its innocuous name, banana freckle is actually a fungal disease caused by the fungus Phyllosticta cavendishii and characterized by “freckles” of fungus on the banana fruit, leaves, and stems. The fruiting bodies of P. cavendishii can spread up to 1 km during the tropical monsoonal weather making this microorganism a serious concern for the $600 million Australian banana industry. (more…)