Microbes: Bacteria and Viruses

In my previous post I discussed about the misconceptions of science and in this post I guess I will write about what I actually study.

I get all types of science questions (not relevant to my field) asked to me because I am a biology student or a science student, and I'm supposedly to know the answer or have an explanation to all of them. I get questions about certain medical problems I never heard about, how certain pharmaceutical drugs are made, why the universe is the way it is and how it works; and the thing is I have no idea since I don't study these things even though it is science. The science I study is Microbiology.

Microbiology, as its name implies, is the study of microorganisms, single celled living things that are invisible to the naked eye and can only be seen with a microscope. There are many other subjects I have "touched up" on (chemistry, physics, etc.) and there are a lot of categories of microbes; however, the main focus of my major is bacteria and viruses. Many of the biology classes I take mainly deal with or is based upon bacteria and viruses. There is a huge emphasis on these two for many reasons.

Bacteria is definitely the most studied microbe due to it's abundance and importance in many fields including the food industry, medical industry, and use in other technology. Bacteria is found almost everywhere on earth: in cold environments, hot, dry, salty; there are bacteria that can live without oxygen (falcultative anaerobe) and some that are even killed by oxygen (obligate anaerobe). Our external body is covered in bacteria; in fact, we are more bacteria than human in that there are more bacteria cells on us than our own total cells. The bacteria that live on us is important and if they all died we would be in a lot of trouble; they defend us from foreign microbes and also produce certain vitamins our bodies can't make. Bacteria is used to make foods such as yogurt (probiotics, eg. Lactobacillus acidophilus), genetically engineered bacteria can make useful proteins such as insulin, they can also be employed for bio-remediation (cleaning waste with microbes, eg. Alcanivorax) and clean up waste such as oil spills.

Alcanivorax

Lactobacillus acidophilus

We have more bacterial cells on us than our own cells

Bacteria are also very important model organisms that have been studied extensively in order to better understand biological processes (such as cell division and food metabolism) that occurs within them and other organisms, like ourselves. They are simple, physically, when compared to complex, multi-organ organisms. We probably know more about the biology of bacteria than we do humans. In addition, bacteria cause some of the most deadliest diseases in the world (anthrax, tuberculosis, to name a few), it is important to study them so we know how to kill them.

Swine Flu Virus

Viruses, like bacteria, are also very well studied. They are vastly important in the medical field, causing many deadly diseases (ebola, AIDS, rabies, to name a few along with being able to cause cancers) and are not used in as many fields as bacteria. The interesting thing about viruses, compared to many of the other things studied in biology, is that they are not considered "alive" or living organisms by many biologists, some consider them alive. One of the main reason for this is because viruses are not made out of cells, all living things are made out of cells (whether single or many cells); a virus is very simple, most are just genetic information (DNA or RNA) wrapped around by proteins. Also, all known viruses cannot live or divide on its own, it needs to infect the cell of another organism in order to divide and make more of itself. They are considered to be infectious particles. Although they are not considered living they do have some characteristics of life such as producing more of itself (when it is in a cell) and being subject to natural selection (being able to adapt to struggles of environment, survive and evolve). Since viruses can inject foreign DNA into cells, they are possible candidates for gene therapy, fix broken genes, whether they serve a natural benefit to organisms is debatable.

For simplicity, I obviously haven't covered a lot or all there is to know about bacteria and viruses. There is way to much to put in one post; we are always learning new things about them which makes it always interesting.

Scientists... thoughts and how many of us really are

Typical looking "scientist"

Bill Nye

Steve Urkel, the geekiest kid I can think of

Kari Byron, Mythbuster (notice the white lab coat)

Einstein...

I know what many of you are thinking; scientists = white lab coat, likes math, brainy, geeky, non-religious, boring, non-sociable, high IQ, hates Art, always like to to use long complicated terms that no one understands...oh, and knows everything there is to know about any field of science. Okay, maybe you're only thinking a few of these things, or none, but the media sure portrays this. I will focus on the underlined ones.



Before I go on, I need to interrupt myself. Let  me make one thing clear, we all don't wear white lab coats and many rarely or NEVER do.



Back to topic, there are always these science shows, like Mythbusters and Bill Nye the Science Guy (I like these shows by the way), where the host(s) are talking about all types of experiments in anything science related. Science as in anything chemistry, physics, or biology related because these are the three basic sciences which these "science" shows never make clear of to people who don't know anything about science... and this is a very important concept! Anyways, there is no such thing as a person like that in the real academic world; a scientist that knows every freakin crap there is to know about every field of science who is always talking about chemistry one second and then next minute is yapping about biology and so on and so forth. At least I haven't met anyone like this so far in my life.

Three Main Sciences: Biology, Chemistry and Physics

In reality, people just focus on their field of study. How much exposure you get with various science fields, depend on your major. Usually biology majors are required to take some classes in chemistry and physics. Physics mostly take math and physics courses and sometimes chemistry, THEY ARE NOT required to take biology courses. The chemistry track is also similar to the physics one. So I guess in a way, biology majors are the more well rounded ones; however, this is just a broad view since each main science has many majors and divisions that intertwines with other fields (biochemistry for example).



Seeing these science shows, you would think that anyone that studies any field in science would like all of them, and that's just not the case. Me personally, I only like some topics in biology (it's a very huge/ diverse field as with the other basic sciences) and only a little bit of chemistry. Physics is only interesting to me when it is conceptual; once anything reaches to a complicated math level, I dislike it. If you go up to a physics professor and ask a question pertaining to biology in an upper division class, most likely they will be puzzled and not be able to help you and vice versa. As you can see from my first link (here it is again if you're too lazy to scroll up) each individual has their likes and dislikes in the sciences.

Usually biologists don't like physics and math; physicists and engineers (engineering is literally same as physics but I don't know why it's always separate) usually hate biology. Chemistry is an in betweener. Of course, there are those few that loves anything science, but hey, you can only major in one or a few.

Also we don't know everything there is to know about our field of study or major. There are many people who are extremely smart, but still there is no one that knows everything. Studying in any field of science, you  are expected to know a lot to be the best you can, but still you can't know everything. But really, that's how it is in any field of study, not just the sciences.



The term "scientist" is such an overused term outside the science community; it's rarely used amongst me and my fellow bio colleagues, I don't think chemists and physicists use the term much either. Yes, it is a broad term you use if you don't know a person's field of study in science, but, as I said before the media makes it seem like a scientist studies all fields of science. Basically, you don't hear anyone going around saying they are a "scientist", people will just say they are studying to be a physicist, biochemist, microbiologist, astronomer, geologist, or whatever it is that they study.

Fake...

Lastly, I have to bring up the white lab coat stuff again. It's only worn if  you are dealing with hazardous materials or if you don't want to get your clothes dirty with stains used in labs. Usually biologists and chemist wear these. Other types of scientists such as an astronomer or a geologist, probably never worn a white lab coat in their life since their work doesn't require it. Hell, have you ever seen Einstein in a white lab coat? He's a physicist.



I know I haven't talked about all the misconceptions I listed, but I think you get my point of how people studying a field in science are portrayed. inappropriately.

Oh, also, I love Art (Photography).