Question: How do you think advances in microbiology will be made?

Paul Waines answered on 17 Jun 2013:

Traditionally, microbiology has relied on us being able to grow bacteria in the lab before we can study them. We understand now that relying on being able to grow bacteria actually means that you end up ignoring up to 99% of bacteria that might be present in the environment. They might be there, but when you try and grow them, there are many that are very fussy when it comes to things like food and living conditions!

Microbiologists nowadays are looking on an even smaller scale; that is to say, they are still growing bacteria in the lab , but are also using methods which allow them to look at the DNA of individual bacteria, or groups of bacteria, in many different ways. This can tell you an awful lot about their structure and behaviour. These methods, much as is the case with human medicine, will lead to new discoveries about the way microbes interact with their environment (including us and eachother) and this in turn will change the way in which we use the good bacteria and combat the ‘disease causers’.