Answer to Question #328117 in Microbiology for Mabil

Question

Briefly explain the evolution of microbiology, discuss the scientist contribution, the spontaneous generation

Answer 1

Spontaneous generation is the hypothetical process by which living organisms develop from nonliving matter; also, the archaic theory that utilized this process to explain the origin of life.

Pasteur’s set of experiments irrefutably disproved the theory of spontaneous generation and earned him the prestigious Alhumbert Prize from the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1862. In a subsequent leclecture in 1864, Pasteur articulated “Omne vivum ex vivo” (“Life only comes from life”). In this lecture, Pasteur recounted his famous swan-neck flask experiment, stating that “life is a germ and a germ is life. Never will the doctrine of spontaneous generation recover from the mortal blow of this simple experiment.”[4] To Pasteur’s credit, it never has.

Milestones in microbiology evolution:

1530 – Girolamo Fracastoro proposed that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable tiny particles or “spores” that could transmit infection by direct or indirect contact.

1665 – Robert Hooke published Micrographia, a book describing observations made with microscopes and telescopes. Hooke also coined the term cell for describing biological organisms.

1676 – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observed water closely and was surprised to see tiny organisms – the first bacteria observed by man.

1768 – Lazzaro Spallanzani proposed that microbes move through the air and that they could be killed through boiling which paved the way for research by Louis Pasteur,

1810 – Nicholas Appert discovered that bacteria could not grow in foods in air-tight cans. His method of preservation became popularly known as appertization and later on as canning.

1835 – Agostino Bassi made the important generalization that many diseases of plants, animals, and man are caused by animal or vegetable parasites.

1861– Louis Pasteur introduced the terms aerobic and anaerobic in describing the growth of yeast at the expense of sugar in the presence or absence of oxygen.

1876 – Robert Koch’s discovery of anthrax bacillus in 1876 launched the field of medical bacteriology.

1884 – Hans Christian J. Gram develops a dye system for identifying bacteria [the Gram stain]. Bacteria which retain the violet dye are classified as gram-positive.

1929 – Alexander Fleming publishes the first paper describing penicillin and its effect on gram-positive microorganisms.