A Closer Look at Bacteria, Algae, and Protozoa

A Closer Look at Bacteria, Algae, and Protozoa — page 1
n the 1700s a Dutch draper made a startling discovery Anthony van Leeuwenhoek had a passion for grind ing glass into very precise magnifying lenses He used these lenses to look close up at such things as the scrapings from his teeth He wrote I then most always saw with great wonder that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules tiny ani mals very prettily a moving Leeuwenhoek became the first person to see and describe bacteria Since that time scientists have identified and classified thou sands of minuscule living creatures Three important categories of microorganisms bacteria algae and protozoa will be explored in this book Bacteria are prokaryotes Prokaryotes don t have a real nucleus the brain of a cell the way a eukaryotic cell such as that of an animal has Bacteria are much more primi tive in design But their simplicity also allows them to survive in many different environ ments For instance some bacteria need Oxygen some would be killed by it Others called facultative anaerobes can live with or without it Salmonella one facultative anaer obe can cause food