Chapter 1 - Theory of Abiogenesis

Question 1

What benefits does the society gets from microorganisms?

Answer 1

production of bread,
cheese, beer, antibiotics, vaccines, vitamins, enzymes, and many
other important products

Question 2

defined as the study of organisms and
agents too small to be seen clearly by the unaided eye—that is, the
study of microorganisms

Answer 2

Microbiology

Question 3

the first person to observe and describe microorganisms accurately was the amateur microscopist

Answer 3

Antony van
Leeuwenhoek

Question 4

a belief that living organisms could develop from nonliving matter

Answer 4

spontaneous
generation

Question 5

What is the experiment of Francesco Redi?

Answer 5

Flies laid their eggs on the uncovered meat and maggots developed. The
other two pieces of meat did not produce maggots spontaneously.
However, flies were attracted to the gauze-covered container and
laid their eggs on the gauze; these eggs produced maggots.

Question 6

The spontaneous generation finally was challenged by the Italian physician who carried out a series of experiments on decaying meat and its ability to produce maggots spontaneously.

Answer 6

Francesco Redi

Question 7

He reported the results of his experiments on spontaneous generation. He boiled mutton broth and then tightly stoppered the flasks. Eventually many of the flasks became cloudy and contained microorganisms. He thought organic matter contained a vital force that could confer the properties of life on nonliving matter

Answer 7

John Needham

Question 8

the Italian priest and naturalist improved on Needham’s experimental design by first sealing glass flasks that contained water and seeds. If the sealed flasks were placed in boiling water for 3/4 of an hour, no growth took place as long as the flasks remained sealed. He proposed that air carried germs to the culture medium, but also commented that the external air might be required for growth of animals already in the medium.

Answer 8

Lazzaro Spallanzani

Question 9

What was the reply of the supporters of spontaneous generation against Lazzaro Spallanzani?

Answer 9

The supporters of spontaneous generation maintained that heating the air in sealed flasks destroyed its ability to support life.

Question 10

What did Louis Pasteur do to counter the spontaneous generation once and for all?

Answer 10

He demonstrated that microorganisms did not arise from non-living matter but came from other microorganisms in the air. Pasteur’s famous swan-neck flask experiment showed that when broth was boiled and protected from airborne particles, no microbial life developed, effectively refuting spontaneous generation.

Question 11

The first direct demonstration of the role of bacteria in causing disease came from the study of anthrax by the German physician…

Answer 11

Robert Koch

Question 12

Robert Koch’s experiment

Answer 12

Koch injected healthy mice with material from diseased animals, and the mice became ill. After transferring anthrax by inoculation through a series of 20 mice, he incubated a piece of spleen containing the anthrax bacillus in beef serum. The bacilli grew, reproduced, and produced spores. When the isolated bacilli or spores were injected into mice, anthrax developed.

Question 13

Robert Koch’s criteria for proving the causal relationship between a microorganism and a specific disease.

Answer 13

Koch’s postulates

Question 14

Koch’s postulates

Answer 14

1. The microorganism must be present in every case of the disease but absent from healthy organisms.
2. The suspected microorganism must be isolated and grown in a pure culture.
3. The same disease must result when the isolated microorganism is inoculated into a healthy host.
4. The same microorganism must be isolated again from the diseased host.

Question 15

What bacteria caused anthrax?

Answer 15

Bacillus anthrax

Question 16

Why was the gelatin, not an ideal solidifying agent?

Answer 16

The gelatin was not an ideal solidifying agent because it was digested by many bacteria and melted when the temperature rose above 28°C.

Question 17

The wife of Walther Hesse, one of Koch’s assistants, suggested the use of agar as a solidifying agent—she had been using it successfully to make jellies for some time.

Answer 17

Fannie Eilshemius Hesse

Question 18

What makes the agar a good solidifying agent?

Answer 18

Agar was not attacked by most bacteria and did not melt until reaching a temperature of 100°C

Question 19

One of Koch’s assistants who developed the petri dish (plate), a container for solid culture media.

Answer 19

Richard Petri

Question 20

Edward Jenner

Answer 20

Edward Jenner is renowned for pioneering the smallpox vaccine, which laid the foundation for the field of immunology. In 1796, Jenner discovered that exposure to cowpox, a less severe virus, could protect humans from smallpox, a much deadlier disease. By inoculating a boy with cowpox and later demonstrating his immunity to smallpox, Jenner’s work led to the eventual eradication of smallpox and the development of modern vaccines.

Question 21

He developed the process of pasteurization, a method of heating liquids like milk and wine to kill harmful bacteria without altering their quality, significantly improving food safety.

Answer 21

Louis Pasteur

Question 22

biological cells and processes are dismantled and reassembled to make novel systems that do useful things

Answer 22

synthetic biology