2022-04-29 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – G – germ & microbe & bacteria & virus
2022-04-29
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – G – germ & microbe & bacteria & virus
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Ref.: http://www.gotoknow.org/posts/598397
and 683295@2020-10-04
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง “Germ” = ‘JURM’
ออกเสียง “Microbe” = ‘MAHY-krohb’
ออกเสียง “Bacteria” = ‘bak-TEER-ee-uh’
ออกเสียง “Virus” = ‘VAHY-ruhs’
Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression
Germ & microbe & bacteria & virus
These terms are so closely related
that only a scientist would ordinarily
need to differentiate among them.
A GERM is a MICROBE,
a disease-producing microorganism.
In biology,
GERM refers to an initial stage in development,
as “a germ cell of such-and-such a form.”
By extension,
GERM also is used to refer to anything
that acts as a source or initial stage:
“I have the germ of an idea.”
A microbe is a bacterium,
the singular form of bacteria,
which refer to any of numerous microscopic organisms
involved in such processes
as fermentation, putrefaction, and disease.
A virus is an infectious agent,
especially one that reproduced only in living cells.
Virus is really a medical term
for the active element
that infects with and produces a contagious disease:
“The virus of yellow fever.”
Germ is a general term
which will serve in all ordinary situations.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:
Germ (jûrm)
= A microscopic organism or substance,
especially a bacterium or a virus, that causes disease.
= The earliest living form of an organism; a seed, spore, or bud.
Usage You've heard it many times.
Some food falls on the floor, and someone (usually an adult) says,
"Don't eat that now. It has germs on it."
The word germ has been used
to refer to invisible agents of disease since the 19th century,
when scientists were first learning about the nature of disease.
Similarly, the term microbe, which comes from the Greek
prefix mikro-, "small," and word bios, "life," is
a term that arose in the late 19th century
in reference to the microscopic organisms that caused disease.
The terms germ and microbe thus became
associated with an early era of scientific research
in which knowledge was very limited,
and they are no longer used much by scientists.
Thanks to generations of research,
scientists today can usually identify the specific agents of disease,
such as individual species of bacteria or viruses.
When they want to refer generally to agents of disease,
they use the term pathogen, which comes from
Greek pathos, "suffering," and the suffix -gen, "producer."
The term microorganism is used
to refer to any one-celled microscopic organism,
whether it causes disease or is harmless.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Microbe
Did you know?
A hint of the Greek word bios, meaning "life",
can be seen in microbe.
Microbes, or microorganisms,
include bacteria, protozoa, fungi, algae, amoebas, and slime molds.
Many people think of microbes as simply the causes of disease,
but every human is actually the host to billions of microbes,
and most of them are essential to our life.
Much research is now going into
possible microbial sources of future energy;
algae looks particularly promising,
as do certain newly discovered or created microbes
that can produce cellulose,
to be turned into ethanol and other biofuels.
Dictionary.com:
MORE ABOUT BACTERIA
What is bacteria?
Bacteria is a collective name for a large number of single-celled,
microscopic organisms that live in the soil, water, or animals,
including humans.
They come in several different shapes,
including spheres, rods, and spirals,
and may organize themselves into clusters or chains.
Bacteria consist of only a single cell.
Additionally, bacteria are prokaryotes,
which means their single cell does not have a nucleus
like an animal or plant cell does.
Instead, their genetic material (DNA)
just floats around inside the cell.
Bacteria often have a single loop of DNA
and possibly some other genes
they have picked up in the environment.
Bacteria reproduce by what is known as binary fission.
A single bacteria splits itself into
two identical copies (clones) of the original,
meaning the two “children” have the exact same
genetic material as the “parent.”
Bacteria can often become immune to antibiotics
quickly because they never lose any genes
they have picked up that help them survive.
Bacteria can reproduce extraordinarily fast
under the right conditions
with a single bacteria making millions of copies
of itself in just a few hours.
Bacteria are incredibly common in nature
and live in almost every environment on Earth.
Most bacteria are harmless or help out other organisms in some way.
For example,
there are several kinds of bacteria
that live in the human intestines
that help breakdown foods or assist
in warding off disease-causing organisms.
The singular of bacteria is bacterium.
Bacteria are often confused with another
disease-causing microscopic organism known as a virus.
Unlike bacteria,
viruses cannot reproduce on their own.
Instead, they infect other cells and force them
to make copies of the virus.
Because of their often destructive reproductive method,
viruses are typically seen as harmful parasites,
and there are far fewer examples
of helpful viruses than helpful bacteria.
Why is bacteria important?
The first records of the word bacteria come from around 1860.
It ultimately comes from the Greek word baktḗria,
meaning “little canes” or “little sticks.”
Some bacteria resemble sticks or rods,
while others have different shapes.
Bacteria are found everywhere on Earth
and have been found in fossils
that are hundreds of millions of years old.
Scientists have argued that
bacteria first appeared on Earth around 3.5 billion years ago,
while humans have only been around for about 200,000 years.
Besides helping us and other animals digest food,
bacteria have other beneficial uses.
Several kinds of bacteria are essential
to making yogurt, buttermilk, and cheese.
Bacteria are also used to make
different kinds of alcohol and to make vinegar.
Some bacteria, such as certain species of E. Coli,
cause disease in animals and plants.
This is a result of the bacteria releasing or secreting toxic chemicals
that cause damage to the cells or tissues
and result in diseases such as tetanus or cholera.
While the immune system tries to kill most bacteria by itself,
humans have developed medicines known as antibiotics
that are designed to kill bacteria.
Did you know … ?
Your body is actually made up of
ten times as many bacteria cells as human cells!
Bacteria live both inside you, as well as all over your skin.
However,
their small size means they only
make up about 1 percent of total body mass.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Is bacteria singular or plural?: Usage Guide
In its established and uncontroversial uses,
bacteria is the plural of bacterium.
… many of the bacteria isolated from
these deep environments are anaerobic …
— Stephen Jay Gould
In speech and in some, typically nontechnical,
journalistic writing,
it also occurs in a singular sense, synonymous with bacterium.
Although the singular use of bacteria is
often identified as an error to be avoided,
it is common in published writing.
The plural form bacterias
is also seen but is relatively rare.
The bacteria seems to prefer living in water
and is more resistant to chlorine
and elevated water temperatures than other bacterias.
— Allan Bruckheim
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Usage Notes
'Virus' vs. 'Bacteria'
The key differences between two common pathogens
What to Know
While both can cause disease,
viruses are not living organisms,
whereas bacteria are.
Viruses are only "active" within host cells
which they need to reproduce,
while bacteria are single-celled organisms
that produce their own energy and can reproduce on their own.
Bacteria serve many vital roles in nature outside of being infectious.
The two most common causative agents of infectious disease
Both of these pathogens are invisible to the naked eye,
allowing for their stealthy transfer from person to person
during an outbreak of a contagious disease.
While they rightly share a nasty reputation as disease agents,
their properties apart from the harm they cause are quite dissimilar.
What is the Difference between Viruses and Bacteria?
Living or Not
Viruses are not living organisms, bacteria are.
Viruses only grow and reproduce inside of the host cells they infect.
When found outside of these living cells, viruses are dormant.
Their “life” therefore requires
the hijacking of the biochemical activities of a living cell.
Bacteria, on the other hand, are living organisms
that consist of single cell that can generate energy,
make its own food, move, and reproduce (typically by binary fission).
This allows bacteria to live in many places
—soil, water, plants, and the human body
—and serve many purposes.
They serve many vital roles in nature
by decomposing organic matter
(maybe not that vital
to anyone who's forgotten leftovers in the back of the fridge)
and by converting nitrogen, through nitrogen fixation,
to chemicals usable by plants.
Bacteria even know how to work as a team
through something called quorum sensing.
Size
Bacteria are giants when compared to viruses.
The smallest bacteria are about 0.4 micron
(one millionth of a meter) in diameter
while viruses range in size from 0.02 to 0.25 micron.
This makes most viruses submicroscopic,
unable to be seen in an ordinary light microscope.
They are typically studied with an electron microscope.
Mode of Infection
Their mode of infection is different.
Because of their distinct biochemistry,
it should come as no surprise that
bacteria and viruses differ in how they cause infection.
Viruses infect a host cell and then multiply by the thousands,
leaving the host cell and infecting other cells of the body.
A viral infection will therefore be systemic,
spreading throughout the body.
Systemic diseases caused by viral infection
include influenza, measles, polio, AIDS, and COVID-19.
Pathogenic bacteria have a more varied operation
and will often infect when the right opportunity arises,
so called opportunistic infection.
The infection caused by pathogenic bacteria is usually
confined to a part of the body, described as a localized infection.
These infections may be caused by the bacteria themselves
or by toxins (endotoxins) they produce.
Examples of bacterial disease
include pneumonia, tuberculosis, tetanus, and food poisoning.
How Viruses Interact with Bacteria
Viruses can infect bacteria.
Bacteria are not immune to viral hijackers
which are known as bacteriophages
—viruses that infect bacteria.
We don’t want to judge,
but this may be one more reason
to put viruses one notch higher in the nasty germs hierarchy.
Dictionary.com:
MORE ABOUT VIRUS
What is a virus?
A virus is an ultramicroscopic agent
that can only reproduce in living cells
and is spread through infection.
Many viruses cause diseases as part of their reproduction process.
Viruses are only 20 to 300 nanometers
—so small that even microscopes can’t see them.
Viruses are also very simple.
They consist of a core made of DNA or RNA,
a protein coat that surrounds the core,
and sometimes an envelope that surrounds the core.
A virus can’t reproduce on its own.
Instead, it will infect a living cell and force it
to make more copies of the virus.
When the virus does this, it stops the cell
from whatever it was doing before and, eventually, kills the cell.
Viruses are infectious, meaning
they often cause symptoms that allow fluids
with copies of the virus to spread to other organisms.
For example,
if you have the flu and cough on another person,
your virus-containing saliva and mucus will enter
the other person’s body and allow the virus to infect their cells.
Because viruses remain inside living cells,
it is often impossible to kill the virus without also killing the cell.
Usually, your immune system is the only thing
that can safely fight a virus.
Why is virus important?
Viruses are responsible for some of the most deadly,
incurable diseases we have today.
In 2019, a new type of coronavirus
(a family of viruses that often cause respiratory illnesses)
was the cause of a deadly disease known COVID-19
(short for coronavirus disease 2019),
which became a worldwide pandemic.
Viruses have also been responsible for other serious diseases,
such as HIV (short for human immunodeficiency virus),
that causes AIDS, a disease in which the immune system
gradually breaks down and often leads to cancer.
Because viruses are so hard to kill
and some can make you very sick,
we try to prevent viruses from infecting us in the first place.
Washing your hands, not breathing on people,
and staying home when you are sick with a virus
all help prevent the virus from spreading.
Vaccines are used to train your immune system
to better fight specific viruses.
Sometimes, antiviral medications can interfere with
the virus’s ability to take over a cell
or treat the symptoms of the virus rather than attack the virus itself.
Did you know ... ?
The word virus is also used
to describe malicious computer code
that is designed to harm or infect computers in a similar way
to how a biological virus infects living things.
Dictionary.com:
“Virus” vs. “Bacteria”: What’s The Difference?
Published March 27, 2020
It’s easy to confuse viruses and bacteria.
They are both extremely tiny, for one thing, and,
depending on what kind of bug you get, they can make you sick.
OK, “extremely tiny” and “make you sick”?
We do have technical words for these things.
Viruses and bacteria are microscopic,
meaning they are too small to see with the unaided eye. And pathogens are “disease-producing agents,”
especially viruses and certain kinds of bacteria.
But, there are many differences between viruses and bacteria too
—and they’re not just important to know to ace your science exams.
These differences can be vital to your health and safety.
What is a virus?
Here’s our full, formal definition of virus:
A virus is an ultramicroscopic (20 to 300 nm in diameter), metabolically inert, infectious agent
that replicates only within the cells of living hosts,
mainly bacteria, plants, and animals:
composed of an RNA or DNA core, a protein coat,
and, in more complex types, a surrounding envelope.
Virus, explained in everyday words,
is an extremely tiny particle that causes an infectious disease.
It is generally made up of some RNA or DNA coated in protein.
It can only multiply in the cell of hosts that are alive.
That means, technically, viruses are not themselves living.
In informal contexts,
virus is also commonly used to refer to
the disease caused by the virus.
And of course,
virus has another special meaning when it comes to computers.
Where does the word virus come from?
The word virus entered English around 1590–1600.
It comes directly from the Latin vīrus, meaning “slime, poison.”
The adjective virulent is also ultimately derived from the Latin vīrus.
In medical and scientific settings,
virulent specifically means “highly infective”
or “causing clinical symptoms.”
More generally, virulent can mean
“actively poisonous,”
“violently hostile,” or
“intensely bitter.”
What does bacteria mean?
Our full, formal definition of bacteria:
Bacteria are ubiquitous one-celled organisms,
spherical, spiral, or rod-shaped and
appearing singly or in chains,
comprising the Schizomycota,
a phylum of the kingdom Monera
(in some classification systems the plant class Schizomycetes), various species of which are involved
in fermentation, putrefaction, infectious diseases, or nitrogen fixation.
Bacteria explained in everyday words:
One-celled organisms that sometimes cause infectious diseases
but, very often, are essential to keeping us healthy or are harmless.
They come in three shapes, resembling a sphere, spiral, or rod.
We generally refer to bacteria just like that: bacteria.
But note that bacteria is technically
the plural form of the singular bacterium.
(You can blame that on Latin.)
You might need to use bacterium
when discussing the specific kind of bacteria that causes a disease,
such as Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague.
Where does the word bacteria come from?
Bacteria is first recorded in English around 1905–10.
Bacterium is older, evidenced by 1840–50.
Both words ultimately come, via Latin,
from the Greek baktēría, meaning “staff.”
Remember how we mentioned that bacteria come in three shapes?
The Greek baktēría is related to the Latin word bacillus,
a name for rod-shaped bacteria.
Sphere-shaped bacteria are also referred to as coccus
(cocci in the plural; again, thanks Latin).
You may have encountered coccus in streptococcus,
which can cause strep throat.
What are some other differences between a virus and bacteria?
As we noted in the intro,
a pathogen is an agent that can cause a disease,
especially a virus or bacterium.
Some fungi and algae can be pathogenic, too.
Viruses cause infection,
and those infections very often result in disease.
Bacteria can sometimes cause infectious disease, too,
but a great deal of bacteria are completely harmless
or even beneficial.
(Think of all those good bacteria you’re supposed to get from yogurt.)
Because viruses aren’t technically alive,
they also aren’t technically microorganisms.
A microorganism is “any organism too small to be viewed
by the unaided eye, as bacteria, protozoa, and some fungi and algae.”
Another word for a microorganism is a microbe.
However, microbe is often used specifically to refer to pathogenic
(disease-causing) bacteria.
And because viruses are microscopic and infectious,
they are also sometimes referred to as microbes.
An everyday term for microbes is germs.
Yeah, we know it’s confusing. Language—just as life—can get messy.
Vaccine vs. antibiotics
Another area of difference between viruses and bacteria
concerns what treats them.
Both vaccines and antibiotics are used to treat infectious diseases.
There are vaccines that work against both viruses and bacterias.
Antibiotics, however, only work against bacteria and other microorganisms.
What does vaccine mean?
A vaccine is any preparation used as a preventive
inoculation to confer immunity against a specific disease,
usually employing an innocuous form of the disease agent,
such as killed or weakened bacteria or viruses,
to stimulate antibody production.
What does antibiotic mean?
An antibiotic is any of a large group of chemical substances,
as penicillin or streptomycin,
produced by various microorganisms and fungi,
having the capacity in dilute solutions to inhibit the growth of
or to destroy bacteria and other microorganisms,
used chiefly in the treatment of infectious diseases.
What are different types of viruses?
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Coronavirus is a family of viruses that includes SARS and MERS.
The flu is also caused by viruses,
but the novel coronavirus is not the flu.
There are many types of flus.
Different strains of what’s known as the H1N1 virus
have caused some particularly lethal pandemics,
including the 2009 swine flu and 1918 pandemic flu,
commonly referred to as the Spanish flu.
There are many types of other viruses that
you have probably heard of, notably hantavirus and HIV.
Some diseases caused by viruses
include chickenpox, Ebola, polio, and smallpox.
Seasonal flus and, yes, the common cold are viral infections, too.
What does flu mean?
The word flu is short for influenza
—borrowed from Italian and from the same Latin root
that gives English the word influence.
Formally defined, influenza is an acute,
commonly epidemic disease, occurring in several forms.
It is caused by numerous rapidly mutating viral strains
and characterized by respiratory symptoms and general prostration.
General prostration?
That’s another way of saying “I just can’t get out of bed.”
And on that note, stay safe, stay at home when you can,
and wash your hands. That will help you, and others,
avoid general prostration—or worse.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
History and Etymology for virus
Middle English, "pus, discharge from a sore, semen,"
borrowed from Latin vīrus (neuter) "venom, poisonous fluid,
acrid element in a substance, secretion with medical or magical properties," going back to an Indo-European base *u̯is-/*u̯īs- "poison, venom,"
whence also Middle Irish fí "venom, poison, evil," Greek īós "poison," Tocharian A wäs and Tocharian B wase, Sanskrit viṣáṃ, Avestan viš, viša- (also vīš?); (sense 1) borrowed from German, borrowed from Latin
NOTE: The application of Latin vīrus
to the submicroscopic infectious agents now considered viruses
(rather than to any infectious agent)
was apparently first made by the Dutch microbiologist
Martinus Beijerinck (1851-1931) in "Ueber ein Contagium
vivum fluidum als Ursache der Fleckenkrankheit der
Tabaksblätter," Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van
Wetenschappen te Amsterdam, Tweede Sectie, Deel VI, no. 5 (1898). Beijerinck, in studying tobacco mosaic virus, mistakenly believed that the agent was a fluid (contagium vivum fluidum, "living fluid infection") because it passed through filters capable of trapping bacteria.
— The neuter gender of vīrus suggests that it was originally an s-stem;
forms in text other than the nominative and
accusative are perhaps found only in Lucretius.
The length of the vowel in Latin, Irish, and Greek,
in contrast to the short vowel in Tocharian and Indo-Iranian,
has been variously accounted for. M. Mayrhofer
(Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen)
suggests that the etymon was originally a root noun,
*u̯īs, *u̯is-ó-, with lengthening of the monosyllabic vowel;
the daughter languages then generalized one or the other form.
ความเห็น (0)
ไม่มีความเห็น