LISTENING WHAT IS A MICROBIOLOGY LAB? 1 1.3 Listen to the recording and complete the text with the missing words. Microbiology labs contain the supplies and (1) ............................... needed for the testing, culturing, and research that microbiologists do, as well as providing an extremely (2) ............................... and sterile place to work. A microbiologist studies very (3) ............................... life forms which live (4) ............................... in the soil, in the air, in water, and even inside (5) ................................ These include bacteria, viruses and fungi. Many of these life forms are so small that they (6) ............................... be seen by the naked (7) ..............................., and are called micro-organisms. A microbiologist will often have to separate and (8) ............................... these micro-organisms in order to better see, (9) ..............................., and experiment on them. Most microbiology labs (10) ............................... like any other biology or chemistry lab. ACTIVITIES They will probably have long lab (11) ............................... where scientists can easily set up their equipment and work. Large (12) ............................... ............................... will be present in order to keep the scientists safe from any (13) ............................... experiments. A large device called an autoclave that (14) ............................... equipment will be somewhere in or near the lab so that the scientists can do their work without contaminating their (15) ................................ Common lab equipment like (16) ..............................., test tubes, balances, (17) ..............................., desiccators, heating pads, (18) ..............................., vortexes, books and computers will also be there. Multiple types of (19) ............................... will be in the lab, some of which store samples while others store (20) ............................... and clean supplies. Large, sealed buckets called fermenters, which (21) ............................... to culture yeast, might be found there. Different types of nutrient gels, called (22) ..............................., will be in the lab. The gel will eventually be poured into sterile (23) ............................... ............................... in order to create agar plates upon which micro-organisms can be grown. Large devices called incubators, which (24) ............................... their contents and may even gently stir them, will (25) ............................... be present. Specialized microbiology labs for the study of viruses, (26) ..............................., fungi and other areas will all have additional pieces of specialized equipment. This equipment can include cell counters, (27) ..............................., microplate readers and scanning electron (28) ............................... (SEMs). 56 Module 1 MOLECULES