Microbiology For Dummies

The world around us is full of tiny invisible living things that affect us every day. Diving into the study of that world is what this book is all about, and we’re happy that you’d like to come along. Microbiology as a whole can feel overwhelming, but when you break it down into parts it can be straightforward and even interesting.

Whether you’re taking a microbiology course for credit or studying microbiology on your own time, we’ve written this book with you, the beginner, in mind. This book walks you through the tricky concepts in microbiology while covering the forms, functions, and impacts of microbes in nature and on our lives.

About This Book

Microbiology For Dummies is an overview of the material covered in a typical first-year microbiology course. Some courses cover more medical, molecular, or environmental microbiology than others, so we’ve included them all here.

In this book, you find clear explanations of

• The characteristics that microorganisms share
• The things that make microbes different from one another and the rest of life on earth
• The processes important to microbial life
• The diversity of microbial life
• How microbes affect us

If you’re a visual learner, you’ll appreciate the many illustrations. And if you like to organize material into categories, you’ll find the lists and tables useful. With this book, you’ll be able to explain what makes microorganisms unique and identify where and how they live. You’ll also have the skills to delve into specialized areas of microbiology that this book covers in an introductory way.

This book is a reference, which means you don’t have to memorize it — unlike your microbiology course, there is no test at the end. Use it as a reference, dipping into whichever chapter or section has the information you need. Finally, sidebars and sections marked with the Technical Stuff icons are skippable. They offer a more in-depth discussion of a topic, extra detail, or interesting cases that are related to the main material of the chapter.

Foolish Assumptions

We don’t assume that you have any background knowledge in microbiology except what may be covered in an introductory biology course. In fact, many of the concepts learned in a biology course are also presented here, so we don’t expect you to know much of that, either. We assume that you are new to microbiology or other science courses where an introduction to microbiology is beneficial, and we’ve written this will book in a way that will provide you with the background you need.

The science of microbiology involves knowing a bit of biochemistry, cell biology, molecular biology, and environmental science, so we explain those concepts as needed, but you may like to peruse guides on those topics for a fuller understanding.

Other than that we only assume that you transcend the idea of microorganisms as “bad” and consider them as important members of our world, especially because they outnumber us about 200 million trillion to one!