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Mysteries of the Microscopic World

Bruce E. Fleury, Ph.D. Professor, Tulane University

Course No. 1551

4.6
(102)102 reviews
91% would recommend
Mysteries of the Microscopic World

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Bruce E. Fleury, Ph.D.

What made this course special for me was how much I learned in the process of teaching it. You're never too old to learn.

InstitutionTulane University

Alma materTulane University

Learn More About This Professor

Course Overview

An invisible world of astonishing complexity is all around you. A world so small you can't see it with the naked eye. A world so crowded that its population staggers the mind. A world in which you participate every day—often without even knowing it. The inhabitants of...

24 Lectures

Average 30 minutes each

Step into the hidden world of microbes and learn the challenges and advantages of being small—very small. Microbes live in a realm where water seems as thick as molasses and the smoothest surface conceals a canyon of hiding places. Also see how the geometry of a sphere explains how bacteria survive.
Turn back the clock to a time when our early ancestors escaped most epidemic diseases. But once we started gathering into villages, raising crops, and domesticating animals, we changed our niche and altered our habitat. Deadly microbes thrived in these new conditions.
Follow the trail of one of the most infamous microbes of all time, Yersinia pestis, the cause of the Black Death. Like typhus, malaria, and dengue fever, the Black Death is a vector-borne disease—one transmitted from human to human via a host intermediary; in this case, fleas.
In the days before the invention of the microscope and the rise of modern medicine, how did people explain a killer plague? Retrace the steps that led pioneers such as Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, and Ignaz Semmelweis to the startling conclusion that organisms invisible to the naked eye cause disease.
In the first of three lectures on the coevolution that shapes our relationship with the microbial world, explore the discovery of antibiotics and the subsequent upsurge in antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria, driven by our overuse of drugs that were once a magic bullet against infection.
Probe the different mechanisms that humans have evolved to defeat microbial invaders, and the strategies evolved by microbes to thwart those defenses. For example, our immune system is primed to produce fever and other infection-fighting responses, but many microbes have developed frighteningly potent countermeasures.
Virulence is a measure of the effectiveness of a microorganism at killing its victims. Discover that many diseases, such as syphilis, scarlet fever, and diphtheria, have grown less virulent due to competition and coevolution. On the other hand, vector-borne pathogens often succeed by growing more virulent.
Chart the human-created niches where microbes flourish. Trade, travel, and technological innovations provide new opportunities for the evolution or dispersal of pathogens, including Legionnaires’ disease in air conditioning systems, toxoplasmosis in kitty litter, and Oropouche fever in fields cleared for the cultivation of cacao, used in making chocolate.
Consider more examples of how ecological disturbances, both natural and human-made, can benefit harmful microbes. Thanks to land-clearing and the subsequent explosion in the deer population, Lyme disease now occurs throughout much of the United States. More frightening and deadly, if less widespread, are hantavirus, Lassa fever, and Ebola.
The hookworm influenced an early 20th-century stereotype of Southerners as indolent and undernourished, and it may have contributed to the outcome of the Civil War. Chart the war waged against this debilitating parasite by zoologist Charles Wardell Stiles, whose public health crusade helped transform the South.
In the first of three lectures on the deadliest epidemic of all time, meet the virus that caused the 1918 flu, investigating its structure, method of infection, and strategy for evading the human immune system. Also learn where it first appeared and how it mutated into a far more virulent strain.
Track the mutated form of the 1918 flu as it reached American shores and killed an estimated 675,000 people out of a population of 105 million. Philadelphia is a horrifying example of the medieval-like conditions that affected a bustling city trying to deal with mass infection and death.
Follow one of the most gripping detective stories of modern times—the search to recover an intact virus from the 1918 flu. Also learn what made the 1918 flu a more powerful killer than the similar strain that attacked in 1976 and 2009.
Given the proliferation of microbes in our midst, why aren’t we sick all the time? In the first of six lectures on the inner mysteries of the immune system, see how different cells have evolved to distinguish self from non-self, providing the first line of defense against infection.
Delve deeper into the mechanics of adaptive immunity to learn how a few hundred genes can easily make more than 100 million different antigen receptors, specific to any foreign invader that enters the body. Also discover the crucial difference between resistance and immunity.
In our age-old struggle with microbes, have we finally met our match with AIDS? The HIV virus that causes AIDS takes aim at the very heart of the human immune system. Probe this elegant strategy and learn where and when HIV first appeared, and why it is so lethal.
Explore the frightening scenarios that may yet unfold with the AIDS pandemic. Then follow the slow progress in developing an AIDS vaccine, and consider the policy of deferring questions of sexual morality to focus on preventing spread of the virus at all costs.
Consider what happens when the immune system turns on us, attacking our own cells and tissues as if we were the enemy. Such autoimmune diseases include multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Type 1 diabetes, and lupus. Examine the mysterious causes of this self-destructive reaction.
In the closing lecture on the human immune system, follow the microscopic chain of events that lead to allergies and asthma. Peanuts, pollen, bee stings, cat hair—all can cause an overreaction in the immune system, but for different reasons and with results that range from discomfort to death.
Investigate the history of microbes as weapons, which dates to the practice of catapulting disease-infected corpses into enemy strongholds. Germ warfare was even used during the American Revolutionary War, but it didn’t reach maturity until World War II with Unit 731, the notorious project run by the Japanese.
As if from Pandora’s box, the technology of germ warfare advanced during the cold war to a lethality rivaled only by atomic weapons. Draw back the curtain on the secret American and Soviet projects that perfected this weapon, and learn why biological warfare is the strategy of choice for terrorists.
When European explorers arrived in the New World, they unwittingly brought weapons far more lethal than firearms: namely, microbes, such as smallpox, that the Indians had never encountered. Learn why diseases bred through contact with domesticated animals in the Old World swept through the Americas like the angel of death.
Is there life beyond Earth? Space is filled with the chemicals essential for life, but so far only indirect evidence for possible microbial life has been found. Also, look at the microbes that thrive in extreme environments on Earth that may resemble conditions on other worlds.
In this last lecture, consider how the vast majority of microbes are harmless or even beneficial to humans. Microorganisms are responsible for everything from the oxygen in air to yogurt and many medicines. They may even help us clean up our planet, proving that the microscopic world is not always the stuff of nightmares!

What's Included?

Instant Video

$239.95

  • Download 24 video lectures to your computer or mobile app
  • Downloadable PDF of the course guidebook
  • FREE video streaming of the course from our website and mobile apps

DVD

$339.95

  • 24 lectures on 4 DVDs
  • 152-page printed course guidebook
  • Downloadable PDF of the course guidebook
  • FREE video streaming of the course from our website and mobile apps

Reviews

102 Reviews This action will navigate to reviews.
91% of reviewers recommend

Reviews

1–8 of 102 Reviews  

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  1. 5 out of 5 stars.

    Excellent Course

    I found this course very interesting and well researched. The presentation kept me interested and I went through the course quickly. The middle lectures were a bit academic and plodding but still very informative. This course needs an update. Many of the examples were outdated and there have been advances in many of the areas discussed. But, I have watched dozens of these courses, and this was one of my favorites.

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  2. 5 out of 5 stars.

    Great course and great instructor

    It was not exactly what I was expecting, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

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  3. 5 out of 5 stars.

    Terrific course....

    Just love this course and have watched it several times. There is so much information to take in....and the Professor is great. Looking for more courses by him,

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  4. 5 out of 5 stars.

    Extremely interesting and energetically presented.Tons of information.Great animated videos.

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  5. 5 out of 5 stars.

    Mysteries of the Microscopic World

    With a dry sense of humor and engaging wit, this professor delivers.. As a professor myself, I am impressed by the breadth of knowledge and engaging delivery. Great Job.!

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  6. 5 out of 5 stars.

    great course

    Dr. Fleuey is an excellent speaker. He explains difficult concepts about as well as possible in a short course and does it with considerable humor. He discusses a wide range of subjects and makes them appropriate and meaningful. .

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  7. 5 out of 5 stars.

    One of my favourite courses

    Great balance of general microbiology-some medical/scientific info couples with interesting historical background. Some of it was thought provoking whilst other parts made you want to scratch or go wash your hands. I really enjoyed listening to Professor Fleury who put over important points effectively but whilst using wit and humour. Would definitely watch any other courses he presented.

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  8. 5 out of 5 stars.

    Excellent narrative!

    I wish Bruce Fleury hadn't died last year. I would love to know what he could have added about the pandemic we all just went through.

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1–8 of 102 Reviews  

Questions & Answers

102 Reviews This action will navigate to reviews.

Questions

1–3 of 3 Questions  

  1. is this course very similar to "Introduction to infectious diseases" ? thanks

    1 answer

    1. Thank you for your question. In the course "An Introduction to Infectious Diseases" you can get a comprehensive overview of diseases from the mundane to the fatal, and the history of how the diseases impacted culture and history. "Mysteries of the Microscopic World" teaches you the biology of all microscopic life not just those that cause illness.

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  2. it what year was this course first presented?

    1. The back of the DVD says 2011.

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    2. This course first released in September of 2011. We also have an even more recent course on microorganisms that focuses on pathogens, 1511: Introduction to Infectious Diseases, which was released in May of 2015.

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  3. is this course in widescreen?

    1 answer

    1. Our more recently produced courses do have widescreen available, but unfortunately Mysteries of the Microscopic World does not.

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