Hopefully by now, you have come to realize that in college, one course impacts another. Even though you may not see a direct correlation at the time, every subject impacts every other subject in at least some small way. In Biology, not only do I have you write, but I also want you to look at this course from a historical standpoint.
History is influenced by many factors. One often-overlooked factor of historical outcomes is biology (microbiology). For example, Europe was greatly affected and suffered almost a forty percent population reduction due to the Plague (Great Plague) or Black Death as it is sometimes referred to by historians. The culprit of the Plague was a bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Sanitation was not the order of the day in Europe at the time of the Plague. Many rats and mice carried the bacterium, Yersinia pestis. When fleas would bite the rats and then in turn bite the Europeans, the Europeans would develop plague. This was further compounded by the fact that the rat population was growing exponentially due to the lack of cats. Many Europeans believed for religious reasons that cats were associated with evil and did not keep them as pets. If the cat population would have been larger, the rat population could have been better contained and the Plague might have not caused so many deaths. Hopefully, this demonstrates how one subject impacts another. No subject or study is ever isolated.
Your assignment is to find a historical event and identify what microbe contributed to it or caused it. You cannot use Yersinia pestis, since this was my example . Each of you must find his/her own example. The event can be on a much smaller or even greater scale. Also, I do not want duplicated events. The organism can be duplicated (to a point) but the event must not be. I do not want to see 20 accounts of the Sarin gas attacks in the Tokyo subway. You cannot use a personal reference. For example,” My brother got sick with Salmonella when he was younger and that messed my family up.” It needs to be an actual historical event that impacted many people. It could have occurred anywhere in the world at any time in history. You need to tell the historical event, when it occurred, where it occurred, what microorganism was to blame, and what type of microorganism it was (bacteria, virus, fungus, parasite, toxin,). Scientific names must be written correctly and given for the causative agent.
Remember, the material you submit is to be in your own words, no cutting and pasting of source information (such as from the internet).You must include (using MLA documentation) all sources consulted in writing this discussion board. Don’t forget to reply to another student’s post in an educational manner. This means you must research the other student’s topic and provide facts he/she didn’t include in their post. You must also include an MLA citation for the sources consulted in researching the other student’s topic.
