By what mechanisms do microbes conserve energy to drive their growth? What is the elemental composition of the biomass generated well-studied microbes, and what are common limitations challenging the recruitment of these elements?  Which organic carbon intermediates are commonly employed when building new biomass?  Topics covered in this class include: growth kinetics and different paradigms of in vitro cultivation; the assimilation of varied environmental sources of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphate into biomass; the fundamentals of energy conservation via fermentation, respiration, or small molecule transport; and microbial behavior, including  flagellar motility and chemotaxis. For a special project, each student will design a growth medium built around a specific organic carbon, or organo-nitrogen, or organo-phosphorous compound of their own choosing, and then attempt to cultivate a microbe from the environment that can utilize that nutrient to drive its growth.