Lecture material
The powerpoint is located on the course website on Angel.

Reading & Homework
1) Click here for the homework reading on the relationship between bacteria and humans. The human microbiome: Me, myself, & US, from the Economist.

Supplemental Links & Resources

1) Learn more about antibiotic resistant bacteria: The Nightmare Bacteria by Carl Zimmer, from National Geographic
2) Learn more about the earliest known bacterial fossils discovered in sedimentary rocks in Australia:  

• The Washington Post - Bacterial traces from 3.5 billion years ago are ‘oldest fossils,’ experts 
  
• Discovery News - Bacterial traces from 3.5 billion years ago
  
• A great blog post by Dr. Jerry Coyne explaining the importance of the recent finding of bacterial microfossils in Australia that are approximately 3.4 billion years old.
  

3) Click here for the link to that scientific article that details the bacterial microfossil finding: 
Wacey, D.,M. R. Kilburn, M. Saudners, J. Cliff, and M. D. Brasier.  2011. Microfossils of sulphur-metabolizing cells in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks of Western Australia.  Nature Geoscience online: doi:10.1038/ngeo1238
4) Blog post by Ed Yong on Stanley Miller's Famous Experiment in 1958 that tried to recreate the conditions for the origin of life
5) The atmosphere of the early earth contained very little oxygen, the evolution of cyanobacteria were a major reason the atmosphere of the early earth ended up with lots (21%) of oxygen. Here is a nice article discussing the importance of cyanobacteria from Scientific American.
6) Beginning in 1988, Dr. Richard Lenski began an experiment to better understand evolution. Using the same strain of E. coli, he wanted to see how this strain of bacteria would evolve. In 2013, there has been over 50,000 generations of E. coli and the experiment is still going.

• Check out this blog post by Carl Zimmer on this experiment 
  
• Long-term experimental evolution project website

Human Microbiome Resources

News Coverage and scientific research on the Human Microbiome Project

• The Human Microbiome Project from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• NPR news story on the Human Microbiome genome project: Finally, A Map Of All The Microbes On Your Body
• A collection of recent scientific studies related to the Human Microbiome Project by Prof. Jon Eisen
• NPR article on how we inherit our Microbiome, not from the environment, but from our mother: From Birth, Our Microbes Become As Personal As A Fingerprint
• NPR article on how changes in our gut microbes can influence weight: How A Change In Gut Microbes Can Affect Weight
• Scientific study on the differences between the microbiome of healthy and obese mice: Turnbaugh et al. (2006) - An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest
• Recent New York Times Article on Bacteria in your body: Some of My Best Friends Are Germs
• A nice article talking about when we get out microbiome...before or after we are born? Human microbiome may be seeded before we are born.
  
• Review article on the functional of the microbiotic on host (human) metabolism: Tremaroli & Backhed (2012): Functional interactions between the gut microbiota and host metabolism
• Radio program and article on the effect of fast food on the human microbiome from the Innovation Hub on National Public Radio - Check it out
• A nice news story reporting on the link between gut microbiome and Crohn's disease from NPR
• 2013 Article that researched the link between an autoimmune disease (celiac disease), age at which an infant first received gluten in their diet (6 months or 12 months), their microbiome, and the likelihood that they would develop the celiac disease. 
  Sellitto M, Bai G, Serena G, Fricke WF, Sturgeon C, et al. (2012) Proof of Concept of Microbiome-Metabolome Analysis and Delayed Gluten Exposure on Celiac Disease Autoimmunity in Genetically At-Risk Infants. PLoS ONE 7(3): e33387. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0033387