Final answer:
A microbiologist would be surprised to find internal membranes in a bacterial cell because bacteria, being prokaryotes, lack compartmentalized internal structures that are found in eukaryotic cells.
Step-by-step explanation:
A microbiologist would be surprised to find internal membranes within a bacterial cell. Unlike their eukaryotic counterparts, prokaryotic bacterial cells do not have compartmentalized internal structures such as endomembrane systems or organelles. Bacterial cells do contain plasmids, a circular chromosome, and ribosomes. Plasmids are small, circular DNA molecules found in many bacteria that can replicate independently of the chromosomal DNA. The bacterial chromosome is generally a single circular strand of DNA found in the nucleoid region. Ribosomes are universal cellular structures responsible for protein synthesis and are indeed found within bacterial cells.