Microscopic Life
This is the word for any living thing that is too small to see without a microscope.
What is a microorganism?
This part of our digestive system is home to trillions of helpful bacteria.
What is the gut (or intestine)?
This type of bacteria helps digest food and keeps harmful bacteria away.
What is helpful (or beneficial) bacteria?
This is the specific food-poisoning bacteria that infected Patient 23 during Week 3, causing vomiting and fever.
What is C. jejuni (Campylobacter jejuni)?
The human body is like an ecosystem for these tiny living things.
What is a microbiome?
This tiny, single-celled organism can live in almost any environment on Earth and is the main focus of this unit.
What is bacteria?
This body system protects us from harmful invaders and includes white blood cells.
What is the immune system?
This type of microorganism causes illness or disease in the human body.
What is harmful bacteria (or a pathogen)?
This potentially deadly, opportunistic bacteria took over Patient 23's gut after antibiotics cleared out his helpful bacteria.
What is C. difficile (Clostridium difficile)?
All living things are made of at least one of these.
What is a cell?
This is an instrument used by scientists to see things that are far too small for the human eye.
What is a microscope?
This nutrient is broken down in the gut and provides energy for both human cells and bacteria.
What is food (or glucose/sugar/carbohydrates)?
This medicine is used to kill harmful bacteria in the human body.
What is an antibiotic?
This medical procedure successfully cured Patient 23 by introducing healthy bacteria back into his gut ecosystem.
What is a fecal transplant (microbiota transplant)?
This scientific term means a situation where there are more of one type of organism than another.
What is an imbalance?
This is the basic building block of all living things, including the human body and bacteria.
What is a cell?
This is the total number, or amount, of something (like bacteria) living in a specific place.
What is population size?
This happens when helpful bacteria take up all the space and food so bad bacteria cannot grow.
What is competitive exclusion (or resource competition)?
Looking at Patient 23's gut data, this type of graph tool is used by students to compare the percentages of bacteria populations across different weeks.
What is a pie chart?
Microorganisms get what they need to live and multiply from this source inside our bodies.
What is resources (food and space)?
Unlike bacteria, these microscopic entities are non-living particles that need a host cell to reproduce.
What is a virus?
This term describes a stable, balanced internal state within the human body.
What is homeostasis?
This is a negative side effect of taking antibiotics that kill helpful bacteria along with the bad ones.
What is a secondary infection (like C. difficile or getting sick because good bacteria are gone)?
This is the ecological reason the fecal transplant cured Patient 23: the newly introduced good bacteria filled up all the available __________.
What are resources (space and food)?
This is the overarching scientific claim about whether bacteria are good or bad for us.
What is most bacteria are helpful or harmless, and only a tiny fraction cause disease?