Online textbook used in an introductory microbiology class. Also available is a strain identifier table: a list of dozens of bacteria and their physical and physiological characteristics. Click on the link in the right hand side entitled "Enteric Strain Searching" to access this table.
On October 24, 1632, the Dutch tradesman and scientist Antonie van Leeuwenkoek, the inventor of the microscope, was born. He is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and considered to be the first microbiologist.