The History of Microbiology Flashcards
Ivan IV, First Czar of All Russia
suspected to have gone mad from syphilis
430 BC - Plague of Athens
killed 1/3 - 2/3 of population
believed to be scarlet fever
rapid onset, high fever, pustules
540 AD - Plague of Justinian
Roman Empire
up to 5,000 deaths per day in Constantinople
grave digging could not keep up
destabilizes empire
Bubonic Plague
The Black Death
spread into Europe, Russia, India, China
kills 25% of European population
destabilizes countries
caused by Yersinia Pestis
vector: fleas
Aztec Empire destabilized by
smallpox
Why do some diseases affect certain groups of people worse
People are more exposed to it/have partial immunity
Louisiana Purchase was due to
yellow fever
Monocultures caused
1846 Irish Potato Famine
1879 French Panama Canal failed due to
malaria and yellow fever
Robert Hooke (1600s)
first to publish descriptions of cells
Antoine van Leeuwenhoek (1674)
first to describe bacteria
spontaneous generation
life comes from nonliving items
Francesco Redi (1600s)
disproved spontaenous generation using maggots and rotting meat
Louis Pasteur (late 1800s)
proved biogenesis
pasteurization
vaccination
germ theory of disease
Biogenesis
life arises from existing life
Pasteurization
heating liquid (milk, juice, wine) to kill harmful bacteria
does NOT sterilize
Vaccination
developed first vaccines for anthrax and rabies using attenuation
Attenuation
weakened pathogens
Germ Theory of Disease
microbes cause infections
Etiological agent
causative organism
Koch’s Postulates
- suspected organisms are isolated from an infected animal and grown in pure culture
- each suspect organism is injected into healthy but susceptible animals
- all experimental animals remain healthy except one, which sickens and dies
- organisms isolated from the dead experimental animal are confirmed as being one of the original suspect organisms
Ignaz Semmelweis (mid 1800s)
Hungarian physician
childbed fever - puerperal sepsis
recommended handwashing
Joseph Lister (late 1800s)
aseptic surgery
washing instruments with carbolic acid
encouraged healing, prevented pus
Florence Nightingale
aseptic technique in nursing
founder of modern nursing
Paul Ehrlich (1906)
Salvarsan - fights syphilis
Sulfa Drugs - kill pathogens to stop disease
Alexander Fleming (1929)
antibiotics (penicillin)
1940-50s
DNA as genetic material
Watson and Crick discover double helix
1960s
how proteins are made
1970s
recombinant DNA developed
2000s
CRISPR-Cas9 (gene editing) found in bacteria