Matthew has asked me to request that readers here, which are numerous, give an answer his “quiz”. Please oblige him (and me) by simply clicking on his tweet below and giving your answer. You have less than a day. I don’t often ask readers to do anything, but I’d appreciate this.
Thanks!
My first quiz. What do you understand by 'microbe'? A) an organism that can only be seen with a microscope (so includes some arthropods), or B) bacteria, viruses and such-like? @sheencr Please RT
— Matthew Cobb (@matthewcobb) February 14, 2018
I voted for B – and it looks like the vote is going that way.
It’s the Russian hackers.
In what category do you place the organism that causes malaria, Plasmodium falciparum? Of course there are categories like “eukaryote,” but I was thinking of something that indicates that it is microscopic–like microbe.
I guess I just thought P. falciparum had to be a microbe or micro-organisms, two terms that I think mean the same thing. Not to fault anybody who voted B, I’m just saying how it seems to me (semantics shouldn’t usually be a big issue).
Like many others, though, I don’t belong to twitter and won’t join for this.
Glen Davidson
This requires me to sign up for Twitter.
I would eat a full bowl of microbes before I did that.
Hear, hear!
I agree! And as Homer Simspon would say, “Mmmm … microbes!”
I agree! Never on twitter.
Me too. I ain’t a gonna do it.
But I would have voted that microbes are bacteria and viruses and such (like single-celled eukaryotes).
There are other terms to cover the other tiny critters.
Errrr. Bacteria are eukaryotes today?
Oh, sorry, I see the other parsing – excluding multi-cell eukaryotes. Pardon me for pedanting.
Yes
Twi773r has its uses
This could be one, BUT…
…Hmm tough call.
Might have to manually take answers here and add them later.
Came here to say this.
I didn’t realize you had to sign up to see or vote in the poll. I’m adding the poll to this site so everyone can vote.
I tried, but as soon as I click on a selection, it still requires sign up or login.
Yeah verilly! But my vote would go to choice # 1 o/w.
Well, then, stay out of it, busterggi–it’s obviously # 2!
😀
Yep. Need to have a Twitter account. Probably leaving a particular part of the potential electorate out of contention. I’ll bet the WEIT readership has proportionately more non-Twitterers than your average random group.
Yup, no twitter for me either.
Vote: B though no virus.
(Concur)^3
The word microbe implies that A is the correct answer, although common usage is B I think.
In some senses bacteria and viruses are part of our visual world without a microscope – bacteria can be seen and counted on petri dishes. And viruses can be ‘seen’ as plaques.
On Petri dishes, you count bacterial colonies, not individual bacteria.
You do serial solutions (1ml of sample into 9ml water; repeat) to lower the count until you get to a dilution that shows clear, distinct, non-overlapping colonies, and *assume* that each such colony came from a single “microbe” in the dilution in that dish.
You do the solutions all at once, then “plate up” many at once and stick them in the incubator for (the protocol’s specified time). At least, that’s how the MLSO (Medical Lab Scientific Officer) explained it to me when I was doing weekend work in the animal house, and they got called in to “type” a GI case using the suite of caged immune systems along the corridor from the Guniea pigs. So the MLSO would get called in on Saturday, need the rabbits (my job), draw blood, go off and do Ju-Ju in the labs, then be back in Sunday to count the plates. Both of us bored, but on double-bubble, so much chin-wagging before I locked up for the night.
Of COURSE you count colonies, not individuals…your explanation sounds like manspeak. I’ve done a gazillion platings of bacteria.
Your first comment implied individuals are counted. He corrected that mistake – – which was perhaps just a result of bad phrasing by you but nonetheless wrong. Your rejoinder is petty and sexist.
My statement was not wrong. You DO see bacteria on a petri dish.
So, you would count “bacteriums,” then?
What?
I’m so sorry, this has gotten way out of hand and I feel tremendously sad and frustrated.
I was just trying to add to Matthew’s question by looking at the microbe question in a fresh way, pointing out that we can see some microbes without a microscope.
My apologies regarding any negativity in these comments.
Oh, Janet, I completely agree with you in this discussion! My comment was in response to GM’s, and I’m sorry the sometimes confusing comment nesting here made that unclear!
Oops. Hate to bring this thread back to life, but by “GM” I meant “Craw.” Apologies to all.
Oh, a snowflake. How delicate.
If you don’t like having things explained to you (and the audience) then don’t say silly-sounding things. It is annoying that WordPress doesn’t have a “preview” button.
WTH are you calling silly-sounding? You don’t really think anyone (let alone Janet) thought she was counting individual bacteria, do you? I notice you neglected to mention agar; to define “GI;” and did you perhaps mean to say, “serial dilutions? Nor did you explain “plate up.” I’m a bit stumped by “suite of caged immune systems along the corridor.” Oh, and I’m sure you didn’t mean to say, “count the plates.” You don’t count plates, you count bacterial colonies…
No, not arthropods. Mostly things that can be reduced down to single cells – and viruses.
I’m wicked distracted
Gotta say B
Even though my gut says “what about ____”
But I’ll try to click it through to Tw17739
Ok that was painless
Not pain free, pain less.
I’d say B, but l’m not on Twitter so can’t vote
B
(A), since:
But I answered (B).
/@
A.
You’re supposed to vote on the twitter site, not here. Thanks.
B. But I didn’t vote because I’m not on Twitter and it insisted I join to vote. Sorry.
B, but without viruses. But I couldn’t vote without signing up for Twitter. Would rather not do that, apologies.
Jerry’s tweet & post beat Matthew’s to my timeline. Go figure.
I voted ‘B’. For me, it’s the single-vs-multiple cell question that is paramount. Doing everything yourself -vs- cooperating with other cells being the big evolutionary step. IMHO.
Yes, biofilms, particularly multi-species biofilms, muddy this water to the point of resembling a fine-grained mass-wasting sediment flow, and we (geologists) all know how complex *they* are!
B- Not on twitter here
Just checked and there is still no sign of ice in hell, so I won’t be becoming a Twit.
Option B is certainly what I would think of if someone said microbe.
Whatever quiz is for, I looked up microbe before voting. Won’t say whether I my first guess or second guess was right. So I did not vote. There was no rule against this.
As I think of it, “microbe” refers to single celled organisms, so A is out for me.
OTOH, viruses are not cellular organisms so in my mind they’re both wrong.
I feel like B is less wrong, so B it is.
Do we get those stickies that say “I Voted,” like those nice, civic-minded League-of-Women-Voters ladies give you at the polls?
I don’t use twitter, so I can’t vote. I was an anatomist and electron microscopist studying skeletal muscle, so I’m not an expert on microbes. But I think of A as meaning “microscopic beasts” that you need a microscope to see, including B: bacteria, archaea, and viruses.
B, but not on Twitter so I didn’t vote. I don’t mean to be impolite, but – why on earth would one set up a survey of this sort that requires twitter membership to vote??
Wow, look at all the non-Twitterers here! Go, team!
Aargh, hope you don’t read this and get insulted, Heather Hastie! I’m always glad to have you point out some of the best ones for me. 😉 For that matter, that goes for all the Tweets Jerry, Matthew, and others post here, too.
I concur! I don’t tweet either, but I like reading the good ones people I like compile and share.
You strident atwiist, you!
/@
I am on Twitter and I went for B.
Maybe the vote is really about who has a Twitter account so no vote for me too