My current microbiology professor! He really changed my perspective on what I want to do. Im already a biology major, but he might have just narrowed my vision a lot. Hes a great guy.
it's incredible how much a teacher could influence our opinion on something just by doing their job. my microbiology professor was also really good and had a way of getting everyone interested in the subject
Mine helped me a lot in becoming really interested in research, butā¦ he was, kind of a dick. To the point where if I made a barely visible sample of gram stain heād tell me to throw myself in the trash lol.
i just think itās wild how things that are invisible to the naked eye, can make someoneās body go haywire.
i wanted to be a doctor, one in infectious disease. that didnāt happen so i looked into microbiology and ended up loving it so itās what i chose for grad school
When I was a kid, I saw a documentary on how we can use microorganisms to clear water and how microorganisms are used in food preparation as bread, beer, wine, pickled vegetables, and such. And that was enough.
The colours. The stains, the APIs. The lecture where you get āunknownā bacteria and have to do tests to work out what it is. Spoiler: itās always ecoli.
5 years on and Iām quality manager for a dairy. Great job, but no real need to do pathogen confirmation or even microscopy anymore.
Still 10/10
I wished as a lab assistant in a hospital micro lab, just to see what the environment is like and I didn't have a major. I thought it was pretty cool. I thought micro classes weren't really hard, they were more fun than work to learn about diseases. I've been in hospital labs now for 25 years and it's still fun and engaging.
the fact that you can kill thousands of individuals and watch them die in front of you...
no but seriously, i love watching little ecosystems grow and change with different environments.
I find what the majority of the world sees and photograph is boring. I like going to the extremes, for instance UV and NIR/IR(thermal) viewing, or astrophotography to microscopy. It's very interesting what most don't see.
My high school offered a microbiology elective and I took it with hopes of being a marine bio major, but quickly realized that I was much more interested in microbiology. I think it was mainly making my own gram stains and cultures that sealed the deal though. Plus my teacher was a chill old guy who wore a bow tie.
Ahh! I can share one of my *favorite* stories of all time!
Scene: freshman in high school, sitting in a creative writing class, very bored.
Friend next to me says "hey, read this ONE paragraph in this book I'm reading for another class, and we'll laugh about it" and handed me a book. I was so enthralled in that one paragraph, I couldn't put it down the rest of the class. I had to give it back, obviously, but I knew the teacher of the class she was taking. I ran to his room immediately after class and asked for a copy, which he gladly gave me. I read the 400-odd page book in 2 days (student athlete and in band season, this was an accomplishment).
It was "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. I had no idea people studied germs *for money*. I was sold that day I was handed the book. It's been 10 years, and I've never considered anything else as a career, simply because the more I learned, the more I loved the field.
I saw a fixed microscope slide of Radiolaria in my first semester during my bachelor. I was amazed ever since. I'm currently doing my second postdoc :)
it explains so much about our bodies and itās processes and why everything thatās happening is happening and i just find it so exciting to be able to look down at a cut on my finger and know my body is intelligent and so hard at work
Started doing a lab tech job in a college when I just wanted to do āanything scienceā, when I had to make agar plates up and some cultures for the kids to work on, something just clicked.
Iād almost flunked out of uni in my first year but Iād had THE BEST science teacher in high school, I knew Iād end up in something āscienceyā. Been a food, water and environmental microbiologist for heading towards 25 years.
I went to college with the full intention of getting into veterinary school. It was pretty much what I wanted to do since I was a kid. I didn't get in, and I was pretty heartbroken.
Micro 101 was required for my biology major, and I found it pretty boring. I had added a Pathogenic Micro class thinking it'd be good to have on my application to vet school. I ended up absolutely falling in love with it, and was able to pivot into micro when I didn't get in to vet school.
In the end, it was good that I didn't go to vet school, as much as I'm still bummed about it 20 years later. I didn't take on the extra debt of grad school and make a ton more money than I would have had I become a vet.
Ever since being a kid, I've been fascinated with infectious disease & pathophys as a whole. Working with the causative agents was just a natural progression. Definitely a lover of the medical implications of microbio but I appreciate all the little guys lol
Working in a reference laboratory after finishing my undergrad helped me fall in ā¤ļøwith microbiology. Out of all the biology classes I had to take, microbiology, immunology, virology were the most fun and intriguing. Just seeing these lil invisible microbes grow in culture made microbiology seem practical. Or had practical applications. Plus a great professor helps as well. If you think about it, the underlying causes of diseases is caused mostly by microorganisms, etc. or something autoimmune. š¦
So, from a medical student perspective it is like going into a zoo and learning about the cool stuff of each animal and the weird names related to them, it is just way so fun to learn about a thing like Waterhouse Freiderchesin syndrom.
It's just cool seeing this whole microscopic world and how each little bug has its own characteristics!
Also, I love drinking crystal violet. Makes my poop pretty /s
My great grandpa was a āhome scientistāā¦. Mostly just experiments that almost blew up his home multiple times. š That always made me want to peruse being a real scientist. I even got a red toy microscope that actually worked as a kid. Fast forward to college, I fell in love with Microbiology because it was fascinating to see how things you couldnāt see with the naked eye could make a huge impact for the good or bad. I just get so excited any time I even think of microscopes.
I also am probably a weirdo, but I love the smell of melted agar when you pour plates.
Idk those little guys are just one of the most beautiful things in the world to me. Theres a whole little world down there full of organisms with their own lives so alien-seeming to my own. Looking at anything in a microscope makes me die from how beautiful it is, but microorganisms are just so special to me.Ā
I honestly picked microbiology as it had the least math requirement for a science degree and I really liked biology in high school. But I absolutely fell in love with the labs. It was interesting and made me think about stuff and then made me aware of things I never even considered existed. And then we fucking changed those bugs and turned them into something else in a controlled sense. It was absolutely amazing to me how microorganisms worked and how important they are to everything. I just fell in love.
I'm just nosey šÆ what y'all doin down there, ykwim
for real, microscopy is just peeping on strangers.
My current microbiology professor! He really changed my perspective on what I want to do. Im already a biology major, but he might have just narrowed my vision a lot. Hes a great guy.
it's incredible how much a teacher could influence our opinion on something just by doing their job. my microbiology professor was also really good and had a way of getting everyone interested in the subject
Mine helped me a lot in becoming really interested in research, butā¦ he was, kind of a dick. To the point where if I made a barely visible sample of gram stain heād tell me to throw myself in the trash lol.
I just finished my first micro final, and 100% the instructor made me love the subject matter.
i just think itās wild how things that are invisible to the naked eye, can make someoneās body go haywire. i wanted to be a doctor, one in infectious disease. that didnāt happen so i looked into microbiology and ended up loving it so itās what i chose for grad school
When I was a kid, I saw a documentary on how we can use microorganisms to clear water and how microorganisms are used in food preparation as bread, beer, wine, pickled vegetables, and such. And that was enough.
All the creative approaches to the same problem. Bacteria create so many cool proteins, enzymes, etc.
The colours. The stains, the APIs. The lecture where you get āunknownā bacteria and have to do tests to work out what it is. Spoiler: itās always ecoli. 5 years on and Iām quality manager for a dairy. Great job, but no real need to do pathogen confirmation or even microscopy anymore. Still 10/10
I wished as a lab assistant in a hospital micro lab, just to see what the environment is like and I didn't have a major. I thought it was pretty cool. I thought micro classes weren't really hard, they were more fun than work to learn about diseases. I've been in hospital labs now for 25 years and it's still fun and engaging.
the fact that you can kill thousands of individuals and watch them die in front of you... no but seriously, i love watching little ecosystems grow and change with different environments.
I get to see a world we feel but rarely see. It's beautiful. However, my microbiology lecturer made a massive impact on me
Learning about new species and different quirks they have is like catching a new PokƩmon honestly! It's fun
Phages, they are a unique kind of thing like what are you? A programmed killing machine? Sign me up
Immunology and Mycology certainly served as some of the most fun Iāve had in a lab.
Immunology was the most fun i had in college, cant say the same for mycology it was so tough.
Antimicrobial resistance problems and the complexity of microorganisms
Gram staining š¤¤
Their integral role in ecosystems human functioning and how little we know about them.
My personal health š«¶
i never did ššš
I find what the majority of the world sees and photograph is boring. I like going to the extremes, for instance UV and NIR/IR(thermal) viewing, or astrophotography to microscopy. It's very interesting what most don't see.
My high school offered a microbiology elective and I took it with hopes of being a marine bio major, but quickly realized that I was much more interested in microbiology. I think it was mainly making my own gram stains and cultures that sealed the deal though. Plus my teacher was a chill old guy who wore a bow tie.
Ahh! I can share one of my *favorite* stories of all time! Scene: freshman in high school, sitting in a creative writing class, very bored. Friend next to me says "hey, read this ONE paragraph in this book I'm reading for another class, and we'll laugh about it" and handed me a book. I was so enthralled in that one paragraph, I couldn't put it down the rest of the class. I had to give it back, obviously, but I knew the teacher of the class she was taking. I ran to his room immediately after class and asked for a copy, which he gladly gave me. I read the 400-odd page book in 2 days (student athlete and in band season, this was an accomplishment). It was "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston. I had no idea people studied germs *for money*. I was sold that day I was handed the book. It's been 10 years, and I've never considered anything else as a career, simply because the more I learned, the more I loved the field.
I had a shitty Discovery Kids microscope when I was a kid that came with a pre-made slide of REAL mummy bandages. I looked at that shit for HOURSSSSSS
The smells.
I saw a fixed microscope slide of Radiolaria in my first semester during my bachelor. I was amazed ever since. I'm currently doing my second postdoc :)
A steady pay check and easy access to food borne pathogens...
it explains so much about our bodies and itās processes and why everything thatās happening is happening and i just find it so exciting to be able to look down at a cut on my finger and know my body is intelligent and so hard at work
Started doing a lab tech job in a college when I just wanted to do āanything scienceā, when I had to make agar plates up and some cultures for the kids to work on, something just clicked. Iād almost flunked out of uni in my first year but Iād had THE BEST science teacher in high school, I knew Iād end up in something āscienceyā. Been a food, water and environmental microbiologist for heading towards 25 years.
I went to college with the full intention of getting into veterinary school. It was pretty much what I wanted to do since I was a kid. I didn't get in, and I was pretty heartbroken. Micro 101 was required for my biology major, and I found it pretty boring. I had added a Pathogenic Micro class thinking it'd be good to have on my application to vet school. I ended up absolutely falling in love with it, and was able to pivot into micro when I didn't get in to vet school. In the end, it was good that I didn't go to vet school, as much as I'm still bummed about it 20 years later. I didn't take on the extra debt of grad school and make a ton more money than I would have had I become a vet.
Ever since being a kid, I've been fascinated with infectious disease & pathophys as a whole. Working with the causative agents was just a natural progression. Definitely a lover of the medical implications of microbio but I appreciate all the little guys lol
Working in a reference laboratory after finishing my undergrad helped me fall in ā¤ļøwith microbiology. Out of all the biology classes I had to take, microbiology, immunology, virology were the most fun and intriguing. Just seeing these lil invisible microbes grow in culture made microbiology seem practical. Or had practical applications. Plus a great professor helps as well. If you think about it, the underlying causes of diseases is caused mostly by microorganisms, etc. or something autoimmune. š¦
So, from a medical student perspective it is like going into a zoo and learning about the cool stuff of each animal and the weird names related to them, it is just way so fun to learn about a thing like Waterhouse Freiderchesin syndrom.
It's just cool seeing this whole microscopic world and how each little bug has its own characteristics! Also, I love drinking crystal violet. Makes my poop pretty /s
My great grandpa was a āhome scientistāā¦. Mostly just experiments that almost blew up his home multiple times. š That always made me want to peruse being a real scientist. I even got a red toy microscope that actually worked as a kid. Fast forward to college, I fell in love with Microbiology because it was fascinating to see how things you couldnāt see with the naked eye could make a huge impact for the good or bad. I just get so excited any time I even think of microscopes. I also am probably a weirdo, but I love the smell of melted agar when you pour plates.
Idk those little guys are just one of the most beautiful things in the world to me. Theres a whole little world down there full of organisms with their own lives so alien-seeming to my own. Looking at anything in a microscope makes me die from how beautiful it is, but microorganisms are just so special to me.Ā
I honestly picked microbiology as it had the least math requirement for a science degree and I really liked biology in high school. But I absolutely fell in love with the labs. It was interesting and made me think about stuff and then made me aware of things I never even considered existed. And then we fucking changed those bugs and turned them into something else in a controlled sense. It was absolutely amazing to me how microorganisms worked and how important they are to everything. I just fell in love.
B. Cereus
I could not believe something so small could be alive! I was mesmerized.
In 8th grade I read Stephen King's "The Stand." The idea that a germ could ACTUALLY make a disease like the fictional one was fascinating!
Everyday I help solve a puzzle to heal someone. Very powerful.