Introduction
What is the microbiology?
Microbiology is the study of microorganisms - little, really little, critters (except for The Bis One). And, please take a look at some relative sizes of different living cells at Jim Sullivan s Page: Cells Alive! These "bugs" include: bacteria (that s the Latin plural for bacterium); viruses (that s the non-Latin plural for virus - virii sounds weird, so I don t say it); and, fungi (that s the Latin plural for fungus - which by now you have guessed, or already knew, and may not be all that interested to know, anyway). 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 (the study of the immune system and how it works to protect us from harmful organisms and harmful substances produced by them - is what I, Marci, and Larry work on; Virology, the study of viruses, and how they function inside cells - Marci does some of this, too; Pathogenic Microbiology, the study of disease-causing critters and the disease process - is what Eric does; Microbial Genetics, the study of gene function, expression, and regulation - is what Susan and Del do - although Del mostly examines mutations in genes and substances which appear to prevent mutations; Physiology, the study of biochemical mechanisms - is what Jim and Clarence do. I ll focus on bacteria right now, not because this group of critters is necessarily more interesting, but because I know very little about fungi, and because I don t want to talk about viruses just now.