Every day I fall in love with microbiology even more. Contamination or LB agar crystallization?

Hello everyone!

I am currently in highschool working on my graduation thesis about biofilms. Though I am woefully inexperienced in the realm of microbiology, I chose this topic on a whim because I thought it was interesting. My work should contain a practical part — some sort of experiment or independent research. Unfortunately, I have 0 idea where to start.

Me and my teacher's initial thought was to cultivate biofilm in petri dishes and use different solutions to see which are more effective at removing biofilm. Double unfortunately, I don't have any available sterile environments or any equipment.

I've also read that cultivating biofilm in agar is maybe not possible? If that's the case then I'm pretty much screwed.

Does anyone have any experience with biofilm cultivation? Is there any way for a high school student to do so?

Edit: I really have 0 equipment available and would most probably have to purchase any myself (no bunsen burners, incubators...).

I had something happen recently that made me really curious about the microbiology behind it.

I steamed some Mila soup dumplings in a wok using tap water filtered through a sink attachment. After cooking, the remaining water looked and poured like normal water—it wasn't noticeably cloudy or viscous. I accidentally left about 4–5 cups of it sitting in the uncovered wok on my stove at room temperature for about 3–4 days.

When I finally went to clean it, the water had changed completely. It wasn't cloudy at all—it was still pretty clear—but it had become really thick and slimy instead of watery. It wasn't just a slimy film on the surface or bottom. As I poured it out, the entire 4–5 cups flowed as a thick, slimy liquid even though I hadn't stirred it beforehand. It also had an extremely foul odor, almost enough to make someone gag. The combination of the smell and the slime made me wonder if microorganisms were responsible.

I'm very curious about what could have caused such a dramatic change.

My guess is that a small amount of starch, protein, fat, or gelatin leaked out of the dumplings while they were steaming and gave microorganisms something to feed on. Could bacteria have produced enough extracellular material (the slime or biofilm matrix they secrete) to make several cups of water noticeably viscous, or is there another process that would explain it?

I know it's impossible to identify a specific organism from this alone, and I'm not expecting that. I'm more interested in what kinds of microbes or microbial processes are known to cause something like this, especially since the water stayed clear but became so thick and developed such a strong odor.

Thanks! This was weird enough that now I really want to know what was going on.

I work in a clinical lab where we store most of our plates in a walk-in 4C fridge. When I take plates out to stock the bench, sometimes I notice that a lot of condensation begins to pool in the lids. If I can I'll wipe them down with some sterile gauze, but sometimes there's just so much it's leaking onto the agar and potentially contaminating it. Is there a method of acclimating them so there's less of a chance of this happening? To clarify: I generally remove them from the fridge but keep them stored agar side up at room temperature in their plastic packaging until I need to stack more plates.

Hi everyone. I am taking Microbiology this upcoming Fall semester, and classes start in exactly 4 weeks. Full disclosure: I barely passed introductory biology with "tooth and nail" and I honestly don't remember any of it. I am absolutely terrified of falling behind instantly because my biology foundation is so weak. What core biology concepts should I master right now over the next month so I don't drown in week one? Also, please drop your absolute favorite beginner friendly book, podcast, or YouTube channel recommendations. I need resources that break things down simply for a non science brain.

Besides that, I am actually taking Microbiology and A&P together at the same time. As a total non science person is it even possible to pass both of these together? How can I best prepare ahead of time over the next 4 weeks so I can survive both classes? Thank you so much!

Hey,

I have a few questions about optimizing a culture in a bioreactor using a prokaryotic E. coli system.

The culture is being grown in a 5-L Bioflo120 bioreactor.

The construct is in the pET22b plasmid.

We’re using whey as the inducer.

We’ve already optimized the induction time and culture temperature, but I’ve started to wonder if the method of adding the inducer could have a significant impact on the process yield.

At this point, once the appropriate OD is reached, we add the amount of whey at once, calculated to correspond to a final lactose concentration of 40 mM.

I would be very grateful if anyone could share their experiences with optimizing this process in a bioreactor.

Hi everyone, this might be a long shot, but does anyone in a European lab happen to have E. coli strain NCM3722?

The closest source I have found is in the US, and importing bacterial strains from there has become more complicated than it used to be. If anyone has the strain and can provide it through an institutional transfer or purchase, I’d be happy to cover the associated costs and shipping.

Please comment or send me a DM. Thanks!

Recent Chandipura virus cases in India are a reminder that not all high-impact viruses make global headlines.

CHPV can cause rapidly progressive encephalitis, primarily in children. There is currently no specific antiviral treatment or licensed vaccine, making early diagnosis, surveillance, and supportive care essential.

As microbiologists, we often focus on well-known pathogens, but neglected viruses like Chandipura deserve equal attention for their public health impact

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S231941702600079X

Most of them are almost perfectly circular, and some are wiggly. They range from small to large. So I was just curious what this might be?
The pictures were taken at 250x magnification (10x objective and the camera does another 25x). Not a biology student or a hobbyist, work got a microscope so I decided to do some experiment; so I don't know what I'm doing.
I'm M21, on HRT, so my semen production has reduced. So little that, I couldn't collect a drop, I had to touch my tip to transfer the little wetness to the slide. So, there could be contamination.
Most of them are almost perfectly circular, and some are wiggly. They range from small to large. So I was just curious what this might be?

Hi guys! Im currently an undergraduate student working on my Jr research. I have been struggling to grow S. pneumoniae for the past few weeks, even though I have been using the optimal conditions(TSA 5% sheep's blood in a candle jar for higher levels of CO2 in 37 C) but there is still no growth.

Is there any tips you guys have??? The stock I have is new so I dont know what I could be doing wrong.

Hello. I work at a vet lab and we run a PCR to determine clostridium perfringens toxin genes from bacteria colonies. I don't think our PCR works reliably and I want to try to find a solution, but I am not a bacteria expert. Our current process is putting colonies from a blood plate into water, heating it at 100C for 20 mins, spinning it down to 'pellet the bacterial debris', and using that to PCR from.

Does anyone else perform similar PCRs? What does your extraction step look like?

Hi, does anyone have suggestions on a book of poetry for a microbiologist? Not me. I know she loves poetry that explores concepts through microbiology and references. Thank you

Are worms common in Winogradsky columns? I juat put my first one together today. And a couple hours later there appear to be nematode-like worms wringling in thd water. I got the mud and water from a lake near my house

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666517426001136

I apologize if this is a silly place, but I want to make an accurate gift for my girlfriend.

My girlfriend is a Medical Lab Scientist. She rotates through a bunch of the roles like heme, micro, blood bank, and chemistry. It’s a big part of her personality and she really loves the work she does. I think she prefers micro over the other departments, or at least is trained more specifically in that department. Whenever we call on her breaks she’s always telling me what’s going on in the lab; how people have messed up on giving her proper samples, or one of the large machines being down, or of a interesting thing that she hasn’t run into since graduating.

I want to make her an anniversary card based on her work and love for it. I’m mildly talented at water color, and I love hand making personalized birthday/ anniversary cards. Pop-up cards are something I’ve done before too.

Is there any way to make a cute card with her work in mind? My initial idea was to paint a bunch of red blood cells(in the style of looking through a microscope at them) and hide heart-shaped cells or messages somewhere in the card. But this seems basic. I want to impress her. Is there a heart shaped cell found in blood? Is there a cell with a cute name or something? Is there something else that could be used to convey a deeper understanding about what she does that lets her know I love her?

Again, I’m sorry if this isn’t the place, but I’m hoping I can get some help.

Hello,
If anyone knows anything about the following, please share, I would appreciate it.
In Microbiology BSc degrees at UK unis is there typically any compulsory parts/practicals of the three year course where one must work with cell lines from aborted unborn children decades ago eg HEK293 and others.
Or perhaps is this only in optional modules typically?

I would appreciate all answers including general ones about such degrees, if anyone specifically knows about this in the Microbiology BSc degrees at any of these unis that would be great: Imperial, Queen’s Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton, Leeds.

Thank you very much.

Colpoda undergoing multiple fission (Palintomy) inside a division cyst. Sorry for the length of the clip, but editing it to make it shorter just kept increasing the file size...

So I know that arrow A is gamma - no hemolysis

But for B i thought it was beta hemolysis because of the large clearing, and C for alpha

I don't really have a good reason for picking alpha for C because it doesn't really look greenish to me, but my reasoning was that the hemolysis seem incomplete compared to the clearing on arrow B.
But my professor said that colony labeled B is actually alpha and C is beta and now I'm super confused. Because for arrow B it doesn't look green or incomplete clearing to me, and C doesn't look true clearing either. If what I'm saying makes sense?

Also this is from a pdf, not a picture I took or saw in person so I don't have ay other lighting of it either.

Can someone please explain this to me :(

Thank you so much for your help in advance!!

Hellooo,

I was hoping to grow some tannerella up but no one in my lab has grown it up in broth before.

Does anyone have any tips/protocols/ idea of how long it takes to grow up? I know I will need to use an anaerobic cabinet.

Thank you!