16th, 18th & 19th December 2014, "Maybe I Should Put The Same Topic As Mashi's, A Hectic Week With Dr Wan. Hehe"

Actually on the 15th, some of us attended a talk about our future career. It shows us that there are some of the fields that require us, future Microbiologists. 

The after effect of that talk was it did open my eyes a bit since I have always think that I will be only in a laboratory and do research and research and more research. But there are actually more jobs other than that (although it is still associated with researching but at least the scope is bigger now). I still do not know what I wanted to be though, for now I still have the same "working in the lab and do some research to find cure for diseases" dream~ 

This week we covered on Microbial Growth, Growth Control On Microbial Growth as well as Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Microbial growth covered on the suitable conditions for microbes to live. Some microbes are aerobic and some are anaerobic. And there are physical requirements and chemical requirements for them to grow. These microbes need all the physical and chemical requirements in balance. They will not be able to further their growth if there are some missing nutrients. 

Just like human, we need oxygen and food. If we have oxygen but we don't consume food, we cannot grow since we don't have any source of nutrients needed for growth. In fact, we become weaker if we don't eat. The same goes to microbes, well, sort of. Hehe. 

Besides that, we learned about how to isolate microbes. There are several techniques that can be used. And even some "precautions" that must be taken when isolating them such as for anaerobic microbes, we need to ensure that there are not even one oxygen is present around the desired microbes that we want to culture in order to not let them die. 

Other than techniques of isolating, it is also important to pick the right medium for the desired microbes that we want to culture. You might want to make sure of that before putting your desired microbes into the medium you have prepared. You might accidentally put them into a "hated" place for the microbes x'D 

Hence, your effort of collecting the sample will go to waste because you have just inhibit their production due to your own mistake which is by putting them in an undesired place for them to live. 

Also, picking the correct medium is not only important for their growth but also important to classify them. For example, putting Shigella sp. in a lactose containing agar can result in the Shigella sp. being the microbes that stand out due to their non-lactose fermenting characteristics. Hence, we can isolate Shigella sp. and leave out the unwanted microbes, right? 

So it is very important to have your aim right, in order for you to get the desired result. You definitely do not want to waste your time doing "unneeded" research right? HAA. 

Other than that we learnt how to count the generation time and also number of generation of the microbes. I managed to understand them and hopefully... HOPEFULLY! If there is a question(s) in the Final Examination asking to count their amount, I hope it is a question that is not so tricky.

And I have to admit, while doing the exercises. I miss Maths. Deeply. Sincerely. Sincerely from my heart! x'D ---> This person over here, have always been a Maths fan <--- 

Next, since we learn the requirements of microbial growth. It is only fair if we learn how to prevent them from growing too, don't you think? Hehe.

For antimicrobial treatment, there are also physical and chemical "requirements" as well as processes needed to kill or inhibit their growth. Oh, and it also depends on our aim either to kill or inhibit them. Because some of the antimicrobial treatments can kill them while others slowing down their growth. 

And the term, biocide means killing the microbes. I don't think I will ever get confused of this term with the other terms because you can see how closely related it is to the word "suicide" which means killing one self. At least, that's one of the ways to remember~ 

Talking about terms, there are a lot of terms for this topic. And I'm still having troubles remembering them. Hehe. (Except for biocide and bacteriostasis of course, since Dr Wan kept asking us/repeating over and over again the terms in class)

Lastly, we learnt about antimicrobial chemotherapy in which how to prevent pathogen form reproducing. Of course, penicillin is frequently brought up all over the topic because it is an antibiotic. Other than that, we can also observe the activity of the pathogen by doing some test such as the E-test and disk dilution test. To see the level of resistance of the pathogens towards antibiotics. 

So.... I guess from there, we can pick the best antibiotic needed to treat cases associated with the microbes that we have tested. I wonder if that's also the purpose? (Other than to determine the pathogen's activity) 

Also, other than the infamous penicillin there are also other antibiotics. For example, to prevent growth of fungus we have antifungal as well as antiviral which is to inhibit virus activity. And a lot more! That I am not familiar with.. And Dr Wan said that she is going to give us a simpler note, the current note we have is a bit detailed. Don't forget Dr~~~ :D 

That's pretty much (roughly) what we have learnt this week. 

In my opinion, the topics that cover on procedures to isolate and the requirements of microbial is a bit... hard because it consist of facts. But "dinoflagellates can cause red tides" is a fact too! But that is more interesting! Because.. it's about the microoganisms themselves. Haha. I don't know how to explain this... problem? x'D 

However, this is it. End of BMY3101 2014. 

Ah, Dr also said that it felt like it is the longest lecture. Haha. It is! But I don't mind at all since it was the last class. And class with you was always fun anyway so it's okay :D 

And by the time we have finished doing the Kahoot quiz with everyone, and you said "This is it". I was feeling so sad! x'D <---- just so you know, this is a "laughing-until-tears-came-out-of-eyes" emoticon but I strongly feel that you already know this. Hehe. 

It feels like you are our... "Guru Kelas" you know? Hahaa. I hope you will teach us again during the upcoming semesters! I will miss all the digital assignments!!

Keep being the enthusiastic and wonderful lecturer you are, Dr! I will always pray for you :D 

Thank you! LOVE YOUUU! ♥