Trip to the Yakult Factory

Assalamualaikum and Hi Dr Wan and Dr Fairol! :)
I'm glad that we have the chance to write reflective journal about our trip to the Yakult factory. As I am very excited to tell you about my trip to the Yakult factory.

The moment when Dr Fairol announced that we are going to have a trip to Yakult factory, my heart leap with joy as I can feel that this trip will benefit so much to me and also I can get new experience visiting a manufacturing factory such as Yakult. After many ups and downs discussing the perfect time for us to visit the Yakult, we all agree to make this trip happen on 16th May 2016. It is Teacher's Day by the way.

Thanks Dr Fairol for being able to come with us :)

On 16th May 2016, we all gathered at Biotech 1 before boarding into the bus. We all have to gather at 8.00 am as the bus will board at 8.30am. By this we can come back before noon. The journey took only 45 minutes. Upon reaching the Yakult factory, I feel very exhilarated as I have never been to a factory before. When we reached the factory, we saw a group of students from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) also coming to visit the factory. We reached there at about 9.30am.

Yeay! Naik bas baru! Haha

Once we have enter the building, we were directed into a hall. At there, we were given a talk about this Yakult factory. What I have learned from that talk are;

1. Yakult uses bacteria Lactobacillus casei Shirota strain as proteobacteria (good bacteria) in yakult.
2. The founder of the proteobacteria Lactobacillus is Dr Minoru Shirota.
3. Probiotics is a live, good bacteria consumed in large numbers to improve the balance of good bacteria in our intestines. It also must be scientifically proven beneficial for health.

Free gift

As we are so busy with our modern lifestyle, we forgot to take care of our health. The balance of good and bad bacteria in our intestines are disturbed when we:

• don't have healthy eating habits
• are stressed
• get older
• take medicines (antibiotics)
• have infections / food poisoning

When the balance in our body is disturbed, we are going to suffer from diarrhea, constipation, bloated stomach, skin problems, weak immune system and many more may occur. Thus, in order to keep balance of good bacteria in our intestines we must consume probiotics daily.

 Probiotics are important as it:

• Improve bowel movement (avoid constipation, diarrhea)
• Maintain balance of good and bad bacteria 
• Reduce toxins in our body
• Boost immune system (reduce risk of infection & occurrence of cancer cells)

After listening to the lecture for about half an hour, we started our tour around the factory. We were only allowed to see the machine and processing of yakult through the glass window. 

We were also not allow to take photos or videos of the inside factory. Thus, I cannot show any pictures from inside the factory. But overall, I can see the process of fermenting until the process of packaging of yakult.

Overall, I feel satisfied with this trip. I feel happy because now I know how yakult is made. I love this trip because it is fun and interesting. I'm looking forward for more trip next time. :)

Thanks Dr Fairol, love ya! :)

Topic 10 - ECOLOGY

Assalamualaikum and hi everybody! We meet again for this entry. Today I am going to an entry on topic 10 which is Ecology. 

For this topic, Dr Wan will be taking over the class after not seeing us for a month I guess. I missed Dr Wan so much and it feels so good to have Dr Wan to teach us back even for just this one topic. I love both though, Dr Wan and Dr Fairol, I'm not bias haha. But I just feel happy because I can hear Dr Wan's laugh again in her class. So for this topic Ecology. It is not a new topic for me. I have lerned about this topic before in secondary school and also during my foundation year in UiTM. 

Global ecology

I am quite fond of this topic because I think this is the easiest topic among all. But I noticed some difference when learning Ecology this time as I have to relate to microbial world. As far as I know ecology is the study of interaction between living things, non living things and the environment as a whole. But in this Microbiology course, we have to narrow our subject into microbe's world.

In this topic I learned about interaction between organism. We have two interaction which positive interaction and negative interaction. One new term for is "amensalism/antagonistic". This amensalism interaction is one symbiont will get the negative effect while the other symbiont will get benefit or unaffected. Other interactions I have heard before such as; commensalism, mutualism, predation, competition, parasitism and cooperation. Microbes play an important role in global ecology. For instance;

• Global Geochemical Cycles
• Carbon
• Nitrogen
• Iron,
• Sulfur
• El Niño - what role do microbes play in El Niño?
• Global Warming - The average temperature of the Earth has been steadily increasing over the past one hundred years. What role do microbes play in this global warming trend?
• Gaia - the Earth's biosystem is known to some as Gaia. Because microbes are responsible for most of the cycling of elements, they are the foundation of this system.

By studying Ecology topic, I learned more about our environment and the contribution of microorganism for the sustainable of environment. 

ECOLOGY