ORGANISMS AND THEIR INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
THE WORLD OF
MICROBES
Written By:
Zehra Nasirali
For: Mr. Sims
Course: SNC-2AI
Date: 28th
November, 1997
Microbes can be termed as "invisible invaders." The concept being investigated here is what can these minute, invisible "germs" do for our body and in bad cases, how can we fight the diseases and stay ahead of emerging infectious diseases and their symptoms.
During 1400 in Paris, bacteria were spread by rats and killed approximately 75% of the Europeans. This disease was called the bubonic plague, also known as the "Black Death." People were so afraid of this disease that took the lives of innumerable people just by a mere wave of "the smell of death," that they hesitated to utter the diseases name so they referred to it as "the smell of death." Unfortunately, because of the unconquered technology at that time period, they had no way of understanding of how to deal with this instant. Since they linked the plague with smell, they thought that it probably had something to do with the air around them. To save themselves, they wore cloaks and headgears and made sure that they were covered from all around. Their headgears were a combination of a hat and mask joined with a pointed beak. The beak had two holes for them to breathe and in the beak, they filled a load of potpourri and fresh smelling flowers to exempt them from smelling foul air of death. No sooner they found out that it didn't work. If their is anything that I learnt at the Ontario Science Centre, it is that we are lucky, and take it for granted that we are in the world at this very time period and century, that we can thank the breakthrough of research and technology by being grateful to the recorded experiments in the primitive ages: we've defeated microbes responsible for the death of millions upon millions of people.
Moreover, infectious diseases are caused by microbes aka "germs." They are very small and minute and can only be seen under a microscope. However, they are some microbes that make you sick and then they are some that you just cannot live without. An example is polio that is caused by a virus that attacks the spinal cord: one that we cannot live without is "amino acids" that help break down protein in our diet. Therefore the research being done all depends on our understanding of the importance of medical research and it's profound impact on human life.
In conclusion, I found the O.S.C. to be a very informative and 'a fun way of learning.' It was interesting to see all the different types of diseases in the world - all in 3D and to actually see a visual of an HIV molecule. It was also significant to observe and have a "hands-on" experience to see which diseases occur in majority in different parts of the world. The way the diagrams were displayed and relayed to us was "thumbs up." In my opinion the exhibits were a great wav of summarizing and reviewing are units in this science class of G.C.I.