Public Health Microbiologist PDF
Preview Public Health Microbiologist
COOL SCIENCE CAREERS Public Health Microbiologist COOL SCIENCE CAREERS Public Health Microbiologist Tamra Orr Cher r y Lake Publishing Ann Ar bor, Michigan Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor, MI www.cherrylakepublishing.com Photo Credits: Page 6, Photo Courtesy of American Physical Society Copyright ©2008 by Cherry Lake Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Orr, Tamra. Public health microbiologist/by Tamra Orr. p. cm.—(Cool science careers) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-60279-053-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 978-1-60279-082-7 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 1-60279-053-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1-60279-082-5 (pbk.) 1. Medical microbiology—Vocational guidance—Juvenile literature. 2. Microbiology—Vocational guidance--Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. QR46.O77 2007 616.9’041—dc22 2007005692 Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Please visitwww.21stcenturyskills.org for more information. Table of Contents C H A P T E R O N E Tracking the Invisible 4 C H A P T E R T W O Understanding What Cannot Be Seen 10 C H A P T E R T H R E E Microbiologists Then and Now 15 C H A P T E R F O U R Tools for Tiny Tests 23 C H A P T E R F I V E Helping Everyone 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 CHAPTER ONE Tracking the Invisible Cholera germs are so tiny they must be greatly magnified to be seen, even through a microscope. 4 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY I t was one of the darkest moments in history. earning I & nnovation Thousands of people, even entire families, were Skills Americans in the 1940s and dying. Doctors had no idea what to do. There was 1950s greatly feared a deadly a war going on but no soldiers or weapons. Victims disease—polio. Two American were rich, poor, young, and old. doctors Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed vaccines This was an internal war. It wascholera, an enemy in the 1950s that protected children too small to be seen. The war was taking place inside from this killer. The idea of vaccinating people to prevent human bodies, and no one knew how to stop it. disease began with English physician In 1854, the Soho district of London was under Edward Jenner in 1796. attack. The invisible enemy was making people so ill they could not even get up from the fl oor to go for help. Most doctors thought the thick London fog was carrying the illness through open doors and windows. COOL SCIENCE CAREERS:Public Health Microbiologist 5 Dr. John Snow had a different idea. He thought the illness was coming from another source—water. Many other doctors thought he was crazy, but Snow was determined to prove his idea. In 2003, British doctors voted John Snow the greatest physician of all time, in large part for his work on the disease of cholera. 6 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY Making a Map ife C & areer Snow realized that if the sickness were being Skills How do you deal spread through the air, each neighborhood should with the situation when you have a have about the same number of victims. This was completely different opinion from your friends or family on not the case, however. Some areas had many more something? than others. One such place was around a water pump on Soho’s Broad Street. Snow drew a map, marking each house where someone had died from the mysterious disease. Soon he saw a pattern. In the middle of it all was the pump. COOL SCIENCE CAREERS:Public Health Microbiologist 7 Snow needed proof that the well water was somehow the source of the illness. He looked at some drops of the water through his microscope and saw an unfamiliar type of bacteria. Could this be the cause? Snow believed it was. He convinced authorities to take the handle off the pump. Then no one could get water from the Broad Street well. Almost immediately, the cholera epidemic in that area stopped. Snow was right! Bacteria are the cause of scarlet fever, strep throat, pneumonia, leprosy, anthrax, ulcers, and many other diseases. 8 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY
The list of books you might like
