Welcome Back to Science!

After a summer of Nutrition and Statistics, I am rejoining the world of Science and Health studies with Physics, Microbiology, and First Aid & CPR.

I especially enjoyed my first day of Physics, when my teacher spent about 10 minutes covering the basic laboratory introduction, and then ended class- before it began!

So the rest of the story is that lecture precedes lab, and he ended lecture early. Since so many of us are also in his lab, he opened up the lab early and covered the introductory information with us so we wouldn't have to wait around. He planned to cover the info again with the folks who showed up at the regular start time.

I am lucky that my microbiology teacher is out on maternity leave, so we have a substitute while she is away. Not that I have heard anything but good things about her- I hear she is tough, but fair, and that class is fun and interesting. So why am I lucky? Her replacement is a Professor Emeritus. He was HER teacher. He set up the science department at Tidewater Community College. His specialty was Tropical disease. He has tons of experience teaching various science classes, but his favorite? Microbiology.

After a year and a half of Biology and Anatomy, I thought I knew how to use a microscope. Not so! The Doctor spend a good 45 minutes covering the parts of the microscope, and teaching us a methodical way to achieve near perfect focus right away.

Yes, the Doctor is abrupt. He doesn't always hear when someone calls out the correct answer. Sure, he forgets to advance the PowerPoint slide as he lectures. And he is willing to call people out for having their cell phones in class. No, not everyone likes him much. I, however, am thrilled with his expertise, experience, anecdotes, clarity, and focus.

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Here is how we started Microbiology today:
There is no such thing as life.

Think about it.

. . .

Can you pick up life and hand it to someone? Can you quantify it?

No.

You can point to something that is living- it a living organism, or being. You can pick up something that is alive. You can measure something that is alive in any number of ways, but it is not, itself, LIFE.

Rather than being a tangible thing, what we generally refer to as "Life" is a conceptual construct.