Microbiology is the study of microorganisms - little,
really little, critters. These "bugs" include: bacteria, viruses and fungi. Microbiology is actually made up of several sub-disciplines which individually may stand alone, because there is so much to learn in each. These disciplines include: Immunology, Virology, Pathogenic Microbiology, Microbial Genetics and Physiology. I''ll focus on
bacteria right now, because this group of critters is necessarily more interesting.
Bacteria are absolutely necessary for
all life on this planet - for
every known ecosystem - including the human ecosystem! Bacteria are single-cell organisms, that
produce more of their kind by cell-division, alone. So, if one begins with a single
bacterial cell like
E. coli for example, in 20
minutes there will be two, and 20 minutes later, four, etc.,
E. coli cells.
In only 43 hours, from that one cell at the beginning, there would be enough E. coli to occupy the entire volume of the earth (1,090,000,000,000,000,000,000 cubic meters)! In only about two additional hours, these bacteria would weigh as much as the earth - 6,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons! Luckily for us, most bacterial cells die because of the enormous competition for food, and because of other tiny organisms which produce substances (antibiotics) that kill them - you know, like penicillin, which is made by a particular fungus, the mold -
Penicillium). Thank goodness for that one, huh? Actually, many
antibiotics are made by certain bacteria too, and, we get many of our necessary vitamins and nutrients from bacteria by allowing the bacteria to multiply in number, and isolating the things that they make, that we cannot make.
More abstracts about the What is microbiology? An introduction!!!