Why is Microbiology important?

Microorganisms occur nearly everywhere in nature. Since the conditions that favour the survival and growth of many microorganisms are those under which people normally live, it is inevitable that we live among a multitude of microbes. Microorganisms affect the well being of people in a great ways. They bring many changes; some desirable and some undesirable. To know about the beneficial and non beneficial microbes and their roles in our life, microbiology must be a great deal of study. They can be summarizes as follow:

1. Disease. Since discovery of infectious microbes, most infectious diseases controlled by sanitation, preventive medicine, and chemotherapy.
2. Agriculture. microbes vital in processing materials in soil, e.g. nitrogen, sulfur, etc.
3. Food and drink. Microbial fermentations responsible for all alcoholic beverages, breads, pickles, cheeses, etc. Control of food and drink spoilage is major concern of food industry.
4. Chemical products. Microbes have incredible variety of metabolic tricks; can be used to produce acetone and other commercial solvents, pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, preservatives, etc.
5. Basic research. Microbes grow fast, produce enormous # of offspring. Easy to find events that occur only 1 in a billion times if have 100 billion bacteria in test tube. Crucial to modern biology.
6. Biotechnology. E.g. genetic engineering, ability to move genes freely from one organism to another, select genes of interest and amplify their expression. Bacteria are natural hosts for such activities.