The e-Diary Project : Friday, 19th September 2014, 3rd Microbiology class. "Excited"

To be honest, I'm a bit excited for today's class because what Dr assigned for us to do was to read the Microbiology notes that she has posted in PutraLMS. And I had studied the notes, quite thoroughly about today's lesson. I searched in the Internet the names of the microbes that I'm not familiar with (that are mentioned in the notes) and also the words like 'thermoacidophile' 'halophile' and 'methanogen' which are some of the characteristics of a type of microbes : Archaea. Ha! In order to be 'parallel' with my classmates! and Dr! Hehe. At least, I managed to answer some of the question that Dr asked to the whole class like.... what is 'halophiles' and do you know what halophiles is? "Halophiles" are organisms that can live in a high salt concentration condition. And while I'm at it... I might as well mention that "Thermoacidophiles" are organisms but specifically archaea that develop well in acidic and high temperature environment. And not to forget, "methanogens" are microorganisms that produce methane.

And then, the class starts. We, of course, didn't start the class yet but start with the projects briefing that she wanted us to do. Yes, with "s" on it. Haha. There are two projects in total. The first project named "ADOPT A MICROBE". This project is a tradition for the Microbiology students since our seniors had done it too in the past. This project is to be done with a group picking their favourite or preferable microbe. And find out all about the microbe that we picked such as their shape(s), the microbe's impact to the environment, people, etc. In other word, like Dr said, "Know the microbe by heart". And the theme for the project is 'BENEFICIAL MICROBE' since Dr said that based on her observation on us since the first class, we have this mindset that the 'microbes' usually remind us of bad microbes. For example, viruses like cancerous cell when actually there are also other microbes that give benefits. For example : Pennicilium. Pennicilium is a fungi that produce pennicilin, a molecule that is used as antibiotic which is highly used to kill or hinder the growth of certain bacteria in human's body.

However, since I'm still not familiar with the microbes yet and still in the stage of 'knowing each other' with my fellow microbes. I got none in mind. I mean, I don't have any particular microbe yet that I want to "know them by heart" haha. But I'm thinking of a diatom x'D since it's pretty and mysterious to me. And the name... When Dr mentioned diatom. Only one thing crossed my mind : Cl₂ (the infamous diatomic molecule) Hehe.

And the second project is actually this. The e-Diary! At least that's what I call it hehe. Dr described it as 'e-Portfolio' which we can use any website such as Evernote, Cliptomize, educlipper or even using a blog. I had already did my journal in a Google Chrome apps named "Jotstory" but unfortunately, if I am to send the url to Dr. She won't be able to read it because it requires her to make an account x'D so I immediately change my e-Journal by using a blog instead.

Oh. Also, there's another project (that makes it a total of three projects) that we are told to do and the project is due on 18th October 2014. In the group that we are already in, make a 2 minutes long video plus an A1 size poster or a scrapbook. The idea is, we have to use any "Augmented Reality" application that is available on our smartphones to play the video on the poster. It is veryyyy interesting to me, at first I didn't understand the concept when watching the video that Dr showed us in class (hehe) but when she showed it using her phone, I get the whole idea. Haha. And all of us are asked to submit our work to her and she will pick the best poster or scrapbook to be... in the competition. Yes. It's for a competition but I don't remember what's the name of the competition, I'm sorry x'D

As for what I learnt today... The difference of prokaryotes and eukaryotes and which type of microbes is prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Please note that only bacteria and archaea are prokaryotes while the rest (fungi, algae, viruses, protozoa) are eukaryotes. And some of the characteristics that we discussed today are prokaryotes have no nucleus ( 'pro-' = before & '-karyon' = nucleus), reproduce by binary fission, and bacteria produce spores and endospores.

Some of the new things I knew about microbes today :

1- What's the difference between bacteria and archaea? The cell wall of bacteria is made up of peptidoglycan (Also known as murein) while the cell wall of archaea is made up of pseudopeptidoglycan (pseudomurein).

2- Which part of the human body that the microbes are not present? There's no microbe in our blood! If there are microbes in our blood = You're infected = You're sick! See the doctor!!

3- Bacteria (specifically magnetotactic bacteria) have magnetosome which contains magnetite crystal in their cell. And none in eukaryotes.