Question

Chapter 1(microbiology)

5. What was the contribution of each of the following scientists: Jenner, Lister, Leeuwenhoek, Redi, Ehrlich, and Fleming.

6. What is spontaneous generation?

7. What was Pasteur’s approach to disproving spontaneous generation? What other discoveries did he make?

8. What are Koch’s postulates? What are the key features of these postulates? Be able to apply these ideas to a real life scenario. Explain when someone would need to follow the steps of Koch’s postulates?

9. Identify type of study performed by etiology, epidemiology, virology, mycology, parasitology, bacteriology.

Answer 1

Contribution by each of the scientist as follows,

Jenner: His great contribution to medical science involved the discovery of immunity against smallpox through the development of a vaccine produced from comparatively mild cowpox

Lister: introduced carbolic acid(Phenol) to sterilize the surgical instruments and to clean the wounds. He popularised the use of phenol as antiseptic in surgical procedures.

Leeuwenhoek: He was one of those who observed microorganisms, using microscope designed by himself.

Redi: He is the founder of experimental biology with the help of whom he refuted the theory of spontaneous generation. Spontaneous generation is a belief that living organisms could arise from non-living matters.

Ehrlich: Popularise the concept of a magic bullet which was an idea which means to kill the disease-causing bacteria without harming the body. He also contributed to the development of antiserum to combat Diptheria and developed the method of standardizing therapeutic serums.

Fleming: First antibiotic penicillin was developed by him in the year 1928 which had accidentally grown in a petri dish.

Spontaneous generation:

Spontaneous generation is a belief that living organisms could arise from non-living matters.

Pasteurs approach: He was a prominent French chemist studying the causes of wine spoilage and microbial fermentation. The Paris Academy of Sciences offered a prize for resolving the mystery of spontaneous generation belief which was challenged by Louis Pasteur. He disproved it by filtering air using a gun-cotton filter and did the microscopic observation which suggested the presence of microorganism and not life force introduced through the air.

Other contributions: After discovering the presence of microorganisms responsible for wine spoilage he developed a method for killing bacteria using heat and then allowing them to cool. This process is known as pasteurization.