S204: Book 4 Microbes

At this point the course splits a bit. You have to choose with subjects you want to study. There is a choice of Microbes, Plants and Animals. You have to choose two of these to specialise in, and you have to read something about the other subject, bit not in as much detail. This will be reflected in the Exam and some of the later TMAs.

Anyway - this is quite an interesting book, Microbes. It covers:

• The study of microbes
• Microbial metabolism
• Microbes in the environment
• Microbes in animal disease
• Genes and genomes
• Exploiting microbes: biotechnology

It covers quite a bit, from how they work, where they live and their use in genetic and other experimental spheres. It starts off with the simplest forms of microbes, viruses and prions - both of which there is considerable debate on how to categorise them. There is a fair bit on the diseases caused by microbes and the acquisition of resistance. The biotechnology section ends up with genetic manipulation techniques for tuning microbes for production of things like Insulin and so on.

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