The History of Microbiology

Question 1

Ivan IV, First Czar of All Russia

Answer 1

suspected to have gone mad from syphilis

Question 2

430 BC - Plague of Athens

Answer 2

killed 1/3 - 2/3 of population
believed to be scarlet fever
rapid onset, high fever, pustules

Question 3

540 AD - Plague of Justinian

Answer 3

Roman Empire
up to 5,000 deaths per day in Constantinople
grave digging could not keep up
destabilizes empire
Bubonic Plague

Question 4

The Black Death

Answer 4

spread into Europe, Russia, India, China
kills 25% of European population
destabilizes countries
caused by Yersinia Pestis
vector: fleas

Question 5

Aztec Empire destabilized by

Answer 5

smallpox

Question 6

Why do some diseases affect certain groups of people worse

Answer 6

People are more exposed to it/have partial immunity

Question 7

Louisiana Purchase was due to

Answer 7

yellow fever

Question 8

Monocultures caused

Answer 8

1846 Irish Potato Famine

Question 9

1879 French Panama Canal failed due to

Answer 9

malaria and yellow fever

Question 10

Robert Hooke (1600s)

Answer 10

first to publish descriptions of cells

Question 11

Antoine van Leeuwenhoek (1674)

Answer 11

first to describe bacteria

Question 12

spontaneous generation

Answer 12

life comes from nonliving items

Question 13

Francesco Redi (1600s)

Answer 13

disproved spontaenous generation using maggots and rotting meat

Question 14

Louis Pasteur (late 1800s)

Answer 14

proved biogenesis
pasteurization
vaccination
germ theory of disease

Question 15

Biogenesis

Answer 15

life arises from existing life

Question 16

Pasteurization

Answer 16

heating liquid (milk, juice, wine) to kill harmful bacteria
does NOT sterilize

Question 17

Vaccination

Answer 17

developed first vaccines for anthrax and rabies using attenuation

Question 18

Attenuation

Answer 18

weakened pathogens

Question 19

Germ Theory of Disease

Answer 19

microbes cause infections

Question 20

Etiological agent

Answer 20

causative organism

Question 21

Koch’s Postulates

Answer 21

1. suspected organisms are isolated from an infected animal and grown in pure culture
2. each suspect organism is injected into healthy but susceptible animals
3. all experimental animals remain healthy except one, which sickens and dies
4. organisms isolated from the dead experimental animal are confirmed as being one of the original suspect organisms

Question 22

Ignaz Semmelweis (mid 1800s)

Answer 22

Hungarian physician
childbed fever - puerperal sepsis
recommended handwashing

Question 23

Joseph Lister (late 1800s)

Answer 23

aseptic surgery
washing instruments with carbolic acid
encouraged healing, prevented pus

Question 24

Florence Nightingale

Answer 24

aseptic technique in nursing
founder of modern nursing

Question 25

Paul Ehrlich (1906)

Answer 25

Salvarsan - fights syphilis
Sulfa Drugs - kill pathogens to stop disease

Question 26

Alexander Fleming (1929)

Answer 26

antibiotics (penicillin)

Question 27

1940-50s

Answer 27

DNA as genetic material
Watson and Crick discover double helix

Question 28

1960s

Answer 28

how proteins are made

Question 29

1970s

Answer 29

recombinant DNA developed

Question 30

2000s

Answer 30

CRISPR-Cas9 (gene editing) found in bacteria