Microbiology (redirected from Microbiologists)

microbiology: see biology.

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microbiology

Scientific study of microorganisms, a diverse group of simple life-forms including protozoans, algae, molds, bacteria, and viruses. Microbiology is concerned with the structure, function, and classification of these organisms and with ways of controlling and using their activities. Its foundations were established in the later 19th century, with the work of Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch. Since then, many disease-causing microorganisms have been identified and means of controlling their harmful effects have been developed. In addition, means of channeling the activities of various microorganisms to benefit medicine, industry, and agriculture have been discovered. Molds, for example, produce antibiotics, notably penicillin. See also bacteriology, genetic engineering.

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Microbiology

The multidisciplinary science of microorganisms. The prefix micro generally refers to an object sufficiently small that a microscope is required for visualization. In the seventeenth century, Anton van Leeuwenhoek first documented observations of bacteria by using finely ground lenses. Bacteriology, as a precursor science to microbiology, was based on Louis Pasteur's pioneering studies in the nineteenth century, when it was demonstrated that microbes as minute simple living organisms were an integral part of the biosphere involved in fermentation and disease. Microbiology matured into a scientific discipline when students of Pasteur, Robert Koch, and others sustained microbes on various organic substrates and determined that microbes caused chemical changes in the basal nutrients to derive energy for growth. Modern microbiology continued to evolve from bacteriology by encompassing the identification, classification, and study of the structure and function of a wide range of microorganisms including protozoa, algae, fungi, viruses, rickettsia, and parasites as well as bacteria. The comprehensive range of organisms is reflected in the major subdivisions of microbiology, which include medical, industrial, agricultural, food, and dairy. See Algae, Bacteriology, Biotechnology, Fungi, Immunology, Industrial microbiology, Medical bacteriology, Medical mycology, Medical parasitology, Protozoa, Rickettsioses, Virus