Tools of the Trade
This tool is used to transfer small amounts of liquid, such as when loading a gel or exchanging simulated body fluids.
What is a plastic transfer pipet?
This molecule, shaped like a spiral staircase or double helix, contains the genetic code that regulates the body's structures and functions.
What is Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)?
"Little living animalicules prettily moving" was how Antoni van Leeuwenhoek described microbes from this part of his body in 1674.
What is his dental plaque?
This is the primary goal of epidemiology.
What is to promote optimal public health by the prevention and control of health problems?
According to modern knowledge, this simple hygiene practice is one of the best ways to stop the direct spread of infectious agents.
What is proper handwashing?
This piece of lab equipment uses an electrical current to separate molecules like DNA.
What is an electrophoresis box?
DNA found in the nucleus is bundled into these units just before cell division occurs.
What are chromosomes?
This is the collective term for the microorganisms that live on and within our bodies.
What is the human microbiota?
An infection passed by touching a contaminated doorknob is an example of this mode of transmission.
What is indirect contact transmission?
This level of microbial control only reduces the number of microbes on a surface, rather than killing or removing all of them.
What is sanitization?
To prepare a slide of your oral microbiota, this chemical stain is used to make them visible.
What is crystal violet?
While a typical human somatic cell has 46 chromosomes, germline cells like the egg and sperm only have this many.
What is 23?
This term describes a virus that must be taken into a host cell to replicate, making it completely dependent on the host.
What is an obligate intracellular parasite?
In the simulated disease transmission lab, this color indicated that a test tube was "infected" with the simulated microorganism.
What is pink?
Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease refuted this long-held belief that living things can arise from non-living things.
What is spontaneous generation?
This type of agar is used to test for acid-producing bacteria in your mouth and contains an indicator that changes color in the presence of acid.
What is Snyder Agar?
This type of structural abnormality occurs when a segment of a chromosome is lost.
What is a deletion?
Bacteria, their waste products, and salivary proteins come together to form this sticky, hard-to-remove film on teeth.
What is plaque?
This laboratory technique creates a unique pattern of DNA fragments from different viruses, allowing them to be identified.
What is DNA fingerprinting?
Ciprofloxacin was used as this type of control in the antimicrobial experiment because it was expected to inhibit bacterial growth.
What is a positive control?
When placing the lid on the gel box for electrophoresis, this color lead should be positioned nearest to the wells where the DNA is loaded.
What is the black lead?
The human genome is estimated to contain this many billion base pairs.
What is 6.4 billion?
These tough, enclosed bacterial structures are highly resistant and must be destroyed for a surface to be considered truly sterile.
What are endospores?
In the fictitious viral outbreak lab, you had to determine if the Missouri virus was related to deadly and non-deadly viruses from these two other states.
What are Alabama and Pennsylvania?
Name two measures used to combat diseases transmitted via contaminated food or water.
What are proper water chlorination, effective sewage treatment facilities, or monitoring the manufacture, distribution, and storage of food?