(ADDITIONAL/CARTOONS SKIT)

DID YOU KNOW?

The foods and beverages that you enjoy like beer, wine, bread, yogurt, cheese, and pickled vegetables
are all products of microbial fermentation.

Production of these foods and beverages requires microbial fermentation (a process that uses bacteria,
mold, or yeast to convert sugars (carbohydrates) to alcohol, gases, and organic acids). One specific
example of it is with the Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a budding yeast used for making bread).

Ever since the prehistoric era, people took the advantage to preserve and enhance the taste of their
food by the process of fermentation. Archaeological evidences found in a Neolithic village in China (as
early as 7000 BC) shows that people already discovered the process of fermenting beverages from rice,
honey, and fruit.

THE ICEMAN TREATETH

In the prehistoric era, humans had a very limited understanding with the cause of disease. Many of
them believed that it was a result of fate or a punishment for angering gods. They may have different
beliefs, cultures, and explanations but archaeological evidences suggested that they also attempted to
treat illnesses and infections.

Meet Otzi the Iceman, a 5300-year-old mummy found frozen in the ice of the Otzal Alps on the Austrian-
Italian border in 1991.

Dialogue:

Hi! I’m Otzi

Infected with the eggs of the parasite Trichuris trichiura, causing him to have abdominal pain and
anemia.

Found infected with Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium that causes Lyme disease

Tried to treat the infections with the woody fruit Piptoporus betulinus (a fungus has both laxative and
antibiotic properties.

Covered with tattoos made by cutting incisions and filled with herbs

Early Notions of Disease, Contagion, and Containment

In the ancient civilizations, they already have some understanding that disease could be transmitted by
the things they could not see. Historically, they attempted to perform several measures to prevent the
spread of disease.
As evidenced by the:

BIBLE – they quarantine people with leprosy to contain the spread of the disease.

“But if the spot is white in the skin of his body and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in
it has not turned white, the priest shall shut up the diseased person for seven days. And the priest
shall examine him on the seventh day, and if in his eyes the disease is checked and the disease has
not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up for another seven days.”

Leviticus 13:4-5

ANCIENT GREEKS – they developed hygiene practices to get rid of mal`aria (a “miasmatic odor” disease
attributed to bad air.)

ROMANS – they also believed in the miasma hypothesis. As a response, they created and built a
complex sanitation aqueducts (which brought fresh water into the city) and a giant sewer, the Cloaca
Maxima (which carried waste away and into the river Tiber).

DID YOU KNOW?

Even before the invention of the microscope, some doctors, philosophers, and scientists made great
strides in understanding the invisible forces (microbes) that can cause infection, disease, and death.

Hippocrates (profile)

-Father of Western Medicine

-A greek physician

-Notable works/contributions:

 Believed that diseases had natural causes from within patients or their environments instead of
being caused by supernatural forces.
 Together with his heirs, they wrote the Hippocratic Corpus (collection of texts that make up
some of the oldest surviving medical books.
 Authored the Hippocratic Oath (a pledge taken by new physicians as their dedication in
diagnosing and treating patients without causing harm)

Thucydides (profile)

-Father of scientific history

-Greek philosopher and historian

-Notable works/contributions:
  advocated for evidence-based analysis of cause-and-effect reasoning
 Observed that survivors of the Athenian plaque did not get re-infected with the disease, even
when taking care of actively sick people. His observation shows an early understanding of the
concept of immunity.

Marcus Terentius Varro profile (profile)

-Prolific Roman writer

- Notable works/contributions:

 Same with Hippocrates, He is also one of the first people to propose the concept that things we
cannot see (now called microorganisms) can cause disease.
 He said in Res Rusticae (On farming) that precautions should be taken in the swamps because
certain minute creatures that can cause disease by entering our eyes, mouth, and nose thrives
there.

THE BIRTH OF MICROBIOLOGY

Above is the image of our Microbiology buddy that gives us lenses to dive in the Microscopic world. I’m
sure you know what that is, and I hope you have experienced using that already. The MICROSCOPE. Hold
up, let me tell you some historical background on how it was invented, its significance in microbiology,
and some important events that leads to discovery of microorganisms. So, fasten your seatbelts, hold
tight, and prepare your wide-range mind for a microscopic world. Let’s go!

As what was suspected and supported by ancient beliefs, there really are “minute creatures”, but it was
only after the discovery of the microscope that their existence was confirmed. While it is unclear who
exactly invented the microscope, there was a man named Antoine van Leeuwenhoek who was known
for his contribution in the field of microscopy.

Antoine van Leeuwenhoek (profile)

- Dutch cloth merchant

- First to develop a lens powerful enough to observe single-celled organisms, he termed as

“animalcules”.

-From his drawings, it can be seen that he observed a bacteria and protists.

Nearly 200 years after van Leeuwenhoek got his first glimpse of microbes, the “Golden Age of
Microbiology” was born. Two famous microbiologists, Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch were especially
active in advancing our understanding of the unseen world of microbes.

Louis Pasteur (profile)

- French chemist

-Notable works/contributions:

 showed that individual microbial strains had unique properties and demonstrated that
fermentation is caused by microorganisms.
 Invented Pasteurization (process used to kill microorganisms responsible for spoilage)
 Developed vaccines for the treatment of diseases, including rabies, in animals and humans.

Robert Koch

- German physician

- Notable works/contributions:

 First to demonstrate the connection between a single, isolated microbe and a known human
disease.
 Discovered the bacteria that cause anthrax (Bacillus anthracis), cholera (Vibrio cholera), and
tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis).

References:

1. P.E. McGovern et al. “Fermented Beverages of Pre- and Proto-Historic China.” Proceedings

of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1 no. 51 (2004):17593–

17598. doi:10.1073/pnas.0407921102.

2. A. Keller et al. “New Insights into the Tyrolean Iceman's Origin and Phenotype as Inferred

by Whole-Genome Sequencing.” Nature Communications, 3 (2012): 698.

doi:10.1038/ncomms1701.

3. L. Capasso. “5300 Years Ago, the Ice Man Used Natural Laxatives and Antibiotics.” The

Lancet, 352 (1998) 9143: 1864. doi: 10.1016/ s0140-6736(05)79939-6.

4. L. Capasso, L. “5300 Years Ago, the Ice Man Used Natural Laxatives and Antibiotics.” The

Lancet, 352 no. 9143 (1998): 1864. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(05)79939-6.

5. G. Pappas et al. “Insights Into Infectious Disease in the Era of Hippocrates.” International

Journal of Infectious Diseases 12 (2008) 4:347–350. doi:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2007.11.003.

6. Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War. The Second Book. 431 BC. Translated
by Richard Crawley. http://classics.mit.edu/ Thucydides/pelopwar.2.second.html.

7. Plinio Prioreschi. A History of Medicine: Roman Medicine. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen

Press, 1998: p. 215.

8. S.M. Blevins and M.S. Bronze. “Robert Koch and the ‘Golden Age’ of Bacteriology.”

International Journal of Infectious Diseases. 14 no. 9 (2010): e744-e751.

doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2009.12.003.