Historical context

Question 1

Pre-Nineteenth Century

Answer 1

The first historical mention of the presence of
microscopic organisms in soil - Roman writer in
about 60 B.C was Columella.

Question 2

Robert Hooke

Answer 2

Reported fruiting structures of
molds in 1664

Question 3

Anton van
Leeuwenhoek

Answer 3

-Dutch microscope builder
-with his newly constructed microscope
-the first individual to describe microorganisms.
-1684
-reported presence of “wee animalcules” in pond water.

Question 4

The Nineteenth Century:
Does spontaneous generation occur?

Answer 4

French scientist, Louis Pasteur
demonstrated that it was microorganisms
present in the air that were capable of
initiating growth in an exposed sterile culture
medium.
Microbes simply did not arise spontaneously
in a suitable medium.

Question 5

What is the origin of contagious disease?

Answer 5

Although Ignaz Semmelweis and Joseph Lister
(after whom the product Listerine was named)
provided evidence that microorganisms caused
human disease, it was not until the seminal work
of Robert Koch that the germ theory of disease
had a solid scientific basis.

Question 6

The Twentieth Century:
Selman Waksman

Answer 6

Waksman was awarded the 1952 Nobel prize in
physiology and medicine for his discovery of the
antibiotic streptomycin.

Question 7

Koch’s significant developments

Answer 7

reported in 1881
the use of a gelatin culture medium to study microorganisms in vitro.

Question 8

Staining procedure

Answer 8

Five years later the Danish physician Christian Gram described a staining procedure based on differential properties of cell walls, leading to important taxonomic decisions.