Microbe Mission B/C

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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by The48thYoshi »

JonB wrote:A fantastic book we use for this event is "Medical Microbiology" from Murray especially when studying the disease causing organisms. Easy to read. Lots of pictures.
Iirc last year we used Medical Microbiology. However, our main textbook we used was Prescott. It has a really good section on microscopy.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by fffurious »

How important is knowledge of the immune system? I only really know the basics and I'm not sure if I should spend more time on it.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by NeilMehta »

fffurious wrote:How important is knowledge of the immune system? I only really know the basics and I'm not sure if I should spend more time on it.
Honestly, it just isn't a focus of the event, compared to other topics. The test really tends to focus on the microbes themselves. Not saying that immune system questions won't come up, just that they are very rare.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by IvySpear »

Is it worth familiarizing yourself with every last part of cellular respiration and photosynthesis (ie. processes, formulas, etc) because mitochondria/chloroplasts are on there?
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by whythelongface »

IvySpear wrote:Is it worth familiarizing yourself with every last part of cellular respiration and photosynthesis (ie. processes, formulas, etc) because mitochondria/chloroplasts are on there?
Be able to answer general questions, i.e. "what is the end product of glycolysis", but don't bother memorizing the Krebs Cycle or whatever. That's more a Cell Biology kind of thing, and Microbe Mission, despite being about pathogens, is not Cell Bio. Unless you're also studying for USABO or some hardcore biology event, you don't need to know every last part of any cellular process, except maybe DNA stuff.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by Alex-RCHS »

whythelongface wrote:
IvySpear wrote:Is it worth familiarizing yourself with every last part of cellular respiration and photosynthesis (ie. processes, formulas, etc) because mitochondria/chloroplasts are on there?
Be able to answer general questions, i.e. "what is the end product of glycolysis", but don't bother memorizing the Krebs Cycle or whatever. That's more a Cell Biology kind of thing, and Microbe Mission, despite being about pathogens, is not Cell Bio. Unless you're also studying for USABO or some hardcore biology event, you don't need to know every last part of any cellular process, except maybe DNA stuff.
I 100% agree.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by bmd234 »

What kind of math do I need to know for microbes?
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by whythelongface »

bmd234 wrote:What kind of math do I need to know for microbes?
You should be able to calculate basic areas and volumes - I once got asked to calculate the percentage of a bacterial cell that is ribosomal, given some basic dimensions and assumptions. You should also be able to do dilution problems. Granted, I have no idea how to do those... Also be able to perform FOV calculations based on objective, etc, and be able to estimate the number of cells in a certain area.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by Thunderlight8 »

I have two questions

How do you do those microscope points of view questions?

And are eukaryotic supergroups like Excavata and stuff on there?
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by Alex-RCHS »

Thunderlight8 wrote:I have two questions

How do you do those microscope points of view questions?

And are eukaryotic supergroups like Excavata and stuff on there?
Points of view? Do you mean field of view, as in field diameter? If so, there are two main ways that I can think of:
1. If you know the size of one object in the field of view, then you can set up a ratio based on what fraction of the field of view that object takes up. For example, with a 100 um diameter object taking up 1/5 of the field of view:

(100um)/(x um) = 1/5

Where x is the diameter of the field of view, in um. Then you rearrange it and get:

x = (100 um)/(1/5), so x = 500 um.

The other way to do it is using the Field Number, aka the FOV number. This is a number usually found inscribed on the ocular. The field diameter is equal to the Field Number divided by the objective magnification. This makes sense, because at higher magnifications the field diameter will drop. The Field Number is usually measured in mm, I believe.

2. This event is not a taxonomy/ID event at all, however it could come up. If you are an extremely advanced team that has covered every other part of the rules in serious depth, then diving into microscopic eukaryote taxonomy is reasonable, but if not I would only study the basics of bacterial and viral taxonomy. Even then, I don't like tests that ask questions about any taxonomy; I don't think it is covered in the rules (but that's just a personal thing; you probably will find bacterial/viral taxonomy on the more difficult tests so it's worth studying).

Edit: Just realized that, for your second question, you may be referring to the organisms in that supergroup and not the taxonomy of the group itself. In that case I would say that it's worth knowing some stuff about any major group of microscopic organisms. My best advice is to go by the rules, and the most relevant rule in this case is 3d4: "Differences (e.g., size, environment, structure, prokaryotic vs. eukaryotic, etc.) among... protozoans."
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