Joliet Junior College Seven Wonders of Microbe World Discussion

Discussion Board – Seven Wonders of Microbe World

A.  Watch the following video

Seven wonders of Microbe World (Links to an external site.)

B.  Post a discussion as detailed below (5 pts):

List the 7 wonders of microbe world  and explain each with 1-2 sentences. Then in 2-3 sentences, indicate which one of the wonders you think is more important and why.

C. Then, read your class-mates posts and reply to at least two of your classmates. Your comments should be meaningful (not simply “Yeah, me too” or “I agree”). (2.5 pts for each full meaningful response). Make sure you include following in your reply:

start by greeting the class-mate by name

contribute to one or two of his/her discussion point with your view

Pose any related questions you might have

your name

Reply 1:

The seven wonders if the microbe world are: Beer, The Black Death, Food Preservation, Nitrogen Fixation, Antibiotics, Genetic Engineering, and Life on Mars. Beer is made through a process called fermentation. The Black Death was a plague that could survive in normal body temp. People would get black lesions called bubos and this plague killed nearly 17,000 people (1/3 of the population of England). Food preservation was a great discovery because we use it to this day and it allows for less food to go to waste. Nitrogen fixation is when you add microbes (bacteria) to plants to help break down the nitrogen in plants. Antibiotics kill other harmful bacteria. Genetic engineering is used to promote more favorable genes and promote good health. Lastly, the discovery of life on Mars is still underway. There has been evidence of previous life on Mars, but they have yet to find shreds of this life.

I personally think that antibiotics are the most important of the seven wonders because many illnesses are treated by antibiotics. While bacteria can evolve rendering some antibiotics useless, there are scientists advancing antibiotics.

Reply 2:

The seven wonders of the microbe world include beer, which is made from yeast fermenting in grains, the black death, a plague that thrived in humans body temperature, food preservation, which kept food from spoiling longer, nitrogen fixation, which is when bacteria breaks down nitrogen to allow plants to use it in order to create oxygen, antibiotics, which are used to fight off bacterial diseases, genetic engineering, which is the modifying of genes in order to promote a more favorable phenotype, and life on mars which helps us to learn more about how life on earth started. I believe genetic engineering is the most important wonder due to its immense importance in multiple areas. Genetic engineering can make better food, stronger antibiotics, and even cure genetic birth defects. This is still a relatively new discovery, so their are a lot of possibilities that have not been discovered that genetic mutations are capable of producing, like dragons for an example.