Biology was always my “thing.”

Starting from a young age, I was always interested in the natural world, why things happen the way they do, and (of course) animals. For some reason, animals always fascinated me with their endless varieties and their amazing adaptations. I could learn everything possible about a particular species, and yet still want more.

I was obsessed with knowledge.

This fascination with animals didn’t start when I was in university, or even high school. No, I’ve been learning everything I could about animals since I was a little kid.

My parents still tell the story of when they signed me and my twin brother up for pee-wee soccer as children. Apparently, I could not have cared less about the ball, the score or the teams. All I cared about was sitting down on the grass and watching the ants crawling along, going about their daily routine, completely unaware of the giants lurking around them.

So, suffice to say, my parents were not in the least surprised when I showed an aptitude for biology.

But, what if I didn’t go into biology/zoology?

I expected to grapple with this question for this theme post for a while, and went through all the different branches of science that I would consider going into. Ecology was too close to the kind of stuff I’ve done, and the less said about my experiences with both chemistry and physics the better!

And then, it hit me.

If I wasn’t in zoology, I would have liked to have gone into microbiology, the study of microorganisms like bacteria and viruses.

Most microbes are not this cute, cuddly or available to purchase (thanks GiantMicrobes!)

Originally, I never gave any thought to studying it as I was always so focused on animals. I learned about it in school and university, but it was always just another thing to learn to add to my mountain of scientific knowledge. That was, until my last year as an undergraduate, as I was working on my thesis.

I took the only microbiology course offered at my school, and it was taught by Dr. N, a professor who I referenced in my mentors post here a few months ago. I was more excited about having her as a teacher again than I was about the course content.

Boy, was I wrong.

The course was a fascinating mix of biochemistry, ecology, cell biology and even evolution. It is not like I found the content easy to learn, as I didn't. The various pathways and operon’s we studied were very complex and took a lot of time to understand correctly. But, I didn’t mind, as it was an interesting, new and different branch of science to learn.

And then there were the labs.

The labs were a lot of fun. My teaching assistant was great, my lab partner was helpful, and we performed some cool experiments with one of the most amazing microbes, Eschericha coli.

The incredibly adaptable E. coli

Using E. coli, we learned about the mechanisms of antibiotic resistance through actual experimental data, how to select for specific variants of a bacterial strain, how easily bacteria and viruses spread if not careful, and the greatest was making agar plates (regular agar, plates that were missing nutrients, blood agar, etc…).

Looking back at everything I learned in the course and how interested I became in the topic, if it were possible, I would go back and seriously consider doing my thesis and further work in microbiology. But, since time-travel is not yet possible, I will have to settle for learning everything I can about all the helpful and harmful bacteria and viruses now.

After all, that is the beauty of science: There is always something else to learn.