(August 2003) Microbes are everywhere. They populate the air, the water, the soil, and have even evolved intimate relationships with plants and animals. Without microbes, life on earth would cease. This is due mainly to the essential roles microbes play in the systems that support life on earth, such as nutrient cycling and photosynthesis. Further, the physiology, nutrition and protection of plants and animals (including humans) is dependent on various relationships with microbes. This report will focus on the relationships between microbes and humans. And as we will see these relationships are key factors that determine whether or not we…

(August 2003) “Biodiversity, the planet’s most valuable resource, is on loan to us from our children.” – Edward O. Wilson As a recent addition to the English language, with roots in both ecology and evolution, the definition of the word ‘biodiversity’ is still evolving. Zoologists and botanists typically consider biodiversity to refer to the variation and frequency of organisms within a given area, whereas evolutionary biologists may prefer to include in this definition the genes that contribute to the variation within a species as well. In either case, biodiversity can generally be defined as the total composition of evolutionary units…

(August 2004) In the last century, nothing has made a bigger impact on human health than antimicrobial chemotherapy [1]. After 20 years of clinical use, antibiotics have increased the average human life expectancy by ten years while in comparison, curing cancer would only only extend life expectancy by two years [1]. From 1900 to 1990, the average life expectancy of citizens of the U.S. increased a staggering 29 years. In fact, in most of developed countries, mortality due to infectious disease has largely been replaced with mortality due to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer and strokes. Although the…

In the past 50 years, antibiotics have been critical in the fight against many diseases and infections. Their discovery was one of the leading causes for the dramatic rise of average life expectancy in the 20th century and their significance to public health would be impossible to overstate. Antibiotics are defined as any compound which either kills or severely impedes the growth of bacteria. Upon the introduction of penicillin into general clinical practice in 1944, formerly deadly illnesses such as Strep throat and tuberculosis became instantly curable. Today, our dependence on antibiotics is absolute. In 1998, in the United States,…

(August 2004) A cell functions by using its genes to produce proteins and although each cell within an organism will usually contain the same set of genes, there are significant differences in which genes are activated and how they are controlled. This is idea is easy to digest when you think about how a single-celled embryo goes on to produce all kinds of different tissues. At any rate, the mechanism by which genes are utilized is the same for all cells and involves the transcription of a gene into mRNA before being translated into a protein. The production of mRNA…

(this is one of many FAQ files found at Terry) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its third assessment report back in 2001. The report concluded that the panel of prominent scientists expected the earth’s average temperature to rise from anywhere between 1.4 to 5.8% by 2100. This is a significant conclusion, even at the lower level of the scale, not only for the future havoc this would wreak on the earth’s biosphere but as well the political and economic influence such a statement could have in the here and now. So where do these numbers come from? What…

(this is one of many FAQ files found at Terry) You hear sustainability mentioned everywhere these days, but what does it actually mean? In 1983 Norwegian Prime-Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland was commissioned by the United Nations to undertake a study into “sustainable development”. The study entitled “Our Common Future” was published in 1987. It has been referred to more popularly as “The Brundtland Report”. It is in this report that the most agreed upon definition of sustainability can be found. “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet…