Thursday, June 24, 2010

Chance to win a FREE licence of Babylon translation/dictionary software

Babylon is a software (Babylon toolbar is a freeware) that at least I strongly recommend you to try. It not only helps you with your written assignments in terms of spelling checks, synonyms, roots and definitions of the words, etc... but also it helps you to learn a new language through its translation functionality. Remember that a new language is one of the keys to the heart of a new culture. In addition to a free toolbar you can also have access to:
1 - Free online translator of texts, words, expressions and phrases.
2 - Free online dictionary that helps you translate words and expressions in over 20 languages.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Farewell

I hope that you learned the following important points from my lectures:

1. We are in constant competition with less than 1% of bacteria to survive and we are fully dependent on the other 99% to live.

2. We have to respect all microorganisms, they have been around on Earth more than any multicellular creature.

3. Wash your hands if in doubt and never touch your eyes with your bare hands even if you had washed them just a moment ago.

Live Long and Prosper

Q

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Question of the week #3

In my course syllabus, I mentioned introduction to protozoology or protozoalogy; however, on the handout given I wrote introduction to protistology.
Indicate two reasons for which I made this distinction between these two terms.
(Hint: one reason is historical and the other reason is the timeline of eukaryotic taxonomy)

I expect a response to this question on a piece of paper to be handed in by Thursday the latest (before Easter break)

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Answers to Difficult Questions in Lab #4

Question 2:

No, a small zone of inhibition around control disk will not invalidate theexperimentdue to possibility of contamination; also an important issue is that your comparison is performed against controls so the choice of control is an important step in designing experiments

Question 6:

The Petri dishes were incubated upside down in order to avoid condensation of water leading to bursting bacterial cells through osmosis

Article Question 1:

Superbug is a microorganism resistant to many antiseptics and antibiotics


Article Question 2:

An antibiotic or bacteriocide


Article Question 3:

Staphylococcus aureus

Article Question 10:

Wounds that have dead tissue due to lack of blood supply (example gangrins)

Parts of a Compound Microscope


Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Answer to Weekly Question #1

i) There are no conflicts
ii) abiogenesis refers to the time that there were no life on Earth (~ 3.5 billion years ago) whereas spontaneous generation theory started with Aristotle (~ 320 BC) and life existed then. Therefore, conditions surrounding these theories are quite different.

Answers to Homework Questions Section 16-3

1. Sexual reproduction brings about genetic variability and consequently biological evolution can occur at a quicker pace; however, asexual reproduction leads to no genetic variation and thus evolution tends to occur at a slower pace
2. H2O
3. O3 (ozone) layer protect us from harmful UV rays from sun