Microbiology

Agar is a jelly-forming polysaccharide extracted from red seaweeds, used above all to solidify culture media for growing microorganisms.

An antibiotic is a drug that kills bacteria or stops them from growing, used to treat or prevent bacterial infections; it has no effect on viruses.

Antibiotic resistance is the ability of bacteria to survive and multiply despite an antibiotic that once killed them or stopped their growth.

Archaea are single-celled prokaryotes that form their own domain of life, distinct from bacteria in their membranes, cell walls and genes.

Aseptic technique is the set of practices that keeps microbes from contaminating sterile materials, cultures or a patient's tissues during a procedure.

Bacterial conjugation is the direct transfer of DNA, usually a plasmid, from one bacterial cell to another through a pilus and close cell contact.

The six links of the chain of infection, from infectious agent to susceptible host, and how hand hygiene, PPE, cleaning and vaccination break each one.

A natural penicillin still given as a medicine: a strained four-membered beta-lactam ring that jams the enzymes bacteria use to build their cell walls.

Tests blood, tissue and other samples in hospital labs to help doctors diagnose disease, choose treatment and check that it is working.

Applies chemistry, microbiology and engineering to make food safe, nutritious and appealing, and to keep it that way from factory to plate.

Keeps a science lab running: preparing samples and solutions, running tests and looking after the instruments scientists rely on.

Studies bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes to diagnose infections, keep medicines and food safe, and put microbes to useful work.

Tests raw materials and finished products such as medicines, foods and cosmetics to make sure each batch is safe and meets its specification.

Designs and runs the processes that use living cells to make products such as vaccines, antibodies, enzymes and biofuels at scale.

The volume to transfer, the diluent for each tube and the concentration in every tube of a dilution series.

How much stock to dilute, or the final concentration or volume, with C₁V₁ = C₂V₂.

Melting temperature by the nearest-neighbour method with salt and magnesium corrections, plus GC, runs, hairpins and dimers, and where a pair sits on a template.