Lesson 3 (19/9/14)

Started my third lessons on microbiology. This time before entering the lecture hall I've gone through the lecture notes, which was just glancing through + looking up some terms only, not ready to read all in details. However, when Dr. Wan asked a few questions in the end of this lesson, surprisingly, many students were able to answer them. This made me realized that other students were putting real effort as well, all of us must diligently learn more about microbes in order to know them at our fingertips as Dr. Wan said.

Another thing that amazed me was the video shown by Dr. Wan. I've never heard about the "Augmented Reality". It is something like scanning the QR code by using smart devices, it detects the picture and looks for the specific video from its database. This is something that I've never thought of, technology has become more advanced than I thought, just like the 3D printing. It is necessary to update myself more about these innovations before I'm far left behind!

"Be unusual in terms of being more initiative and creative."

 To me, this sounds like asking me to be  a nerdy person! No offence to nerds, in fact they are professional and I really marvel at the knowledge they have. So in order to be the team of unusual, I will first learn how to be a nerd ~ haha !!

Lessons learnt :

Species of microbes

• Bacteria (prokaryote)
• Desulfovibrio
• Spirochete / spirochaete
• Vibrio cholerae
• Escherichia coli O157 : H7
• Archaea (prokaryote, most are extermophiles
• Algae
• Volvox
• Chlorophyta (phylum of green algae)
• Phaeophyta (phylum of brown algae)
• Cyanobacteria (phylum of blue-green algae)
• Rhodophyta (phylum of red algae)
• Fungi
• Saccharomyces cerevisae (a species of yeast)
• Protozoa
• Giardia lambilia

Terms in microbiology

• Spores and endospores
• Peptidoglycan (strongest biological molecule - component of bacteria cell wall)\
• consist of glycosaminoglycan chain interlinked with short peptides
• Hydrothermal vents
• Magnetosomes & magnetite crystals (only in prokaryotes)

Knowledge in microbiology

• Bacteria like all prokaryotes, do not have organelles (compartment separated from the rest of a cell via a phospholipid membrane - eg. nucleus, mitochondria, ER, GA)
• Have inclusions
• Bacteria that live in vacuum
• Bacteria that make arts
• Bacteria with flagella will swim/"run"/"tumble"
• Bacteria without flagella will slide (moonwalk!) >> gliding bacteria
• Basic shapes of bacteria : bacillus, coccus, spiral
• Other shapes of bacteria : star-shaped, roselle-shaped
• 5 groups of Escherichia coli
• most virulent >> Escherichia coli O157 : H7 (which is an expression of prokaryote structure)
• Biofilm in eyes
• Blood has no any single microbe, if there is, it means the person is infected with the microbes
• Virus and multicellular animal parasites / helminths are studied under microbiology even though they are not microbes due to their close relationship with microbes such as bacteria
• Carbon sources of microbes can be known from some of their names
• E.g. Desulfovibrio
• Yeast is a type of fungi
• Archaea is only found in the 1990s
• Marine food chain
• Plankton (e.g. algae) >>> Bacteria >>> Protozoa (predator of bacteria)
• 16S rRNA is used to identify bacteria
• 18S rRNA is used to identify fungus

Muddiest point

• Why is cyanobacteria an algae instead of bacterium?
• Yeast is a single cell fungus, other than yeast, all fungi are multicellular? The largest fungi?
• Difference between prokaryotes and protoctista and protista?
• Difference between endospore and exospore and spore?

Extra information

• Elephantitis lamp

Assignments given :

1. Adopt a microbe!

• Prepare a group poster / scrapbook that contains all the information about the chosen microbe
• Chosen bacteria must be beneficial either to human or environment

2. Upload the link for e-portfolio (e-portfolio must include the reflective journal)