bacteria population

[Judge]

I’ve seen a video by Oliver stating that it could be dangerous to culture bacteria. How would one go about culturing specimens while keeping the bacteria population under control?

[apochronaut]

Oliver is an internet expert only. Some of his videos are inane nonsense.

[Alexander]

The danger of cultivating bacteria depends on the type of bacteria you are cultivating. If it was smallpox or black pest I would recommend the highest possible safety standards. If it was some everywhere bacterium, clean working to avoid contamination of the culture would be good enough.

Culture plates and a incubator are the main tools to culture bacteria. Different types of culture plates will give different results and allow for a first level categorization of the bacterium in culture. Gram staining is a further step. For exact categorization gene sequencing is today's standard but not applicable for hobbyist's use.

[Judge]

Thanks for the information. I'm relatively new at this and appreciate the help available on this forum.

[charlie g]

Actually,Oliver has a graduate degree in microbiology, and is by profession a biology teacher. I just wanted to have this noted.

Having said that, I totally agree that we hobbyist can enjoy a lot of study, field collecting, and culturing of eubacteria, archaea, blue green algae, fungi, and protozoa. Great microscopy for which a really low cost text : "A Field guide to Bacteria",2003, Betsey Dexter Dyer, is available used online ( great book for a cheap price).

I think Oliver is being over cautious regarding hobbyist home culture of microbes. If you can be safe with raw poultry in your kitchen, if you know how to keep hands clean...enjoy natural native microbes, avoid fecal/sewage studies, do not sample skin pimple, nasal swabs...common sense to have training to properly study such microbes.

please go for that low cost book by Dr. Dryer. charlie guevara

[AJHope]

excellent advice, just get the book and avoid unsanitary settings.

[DonSchaeffer]

How about using vegetables and no animal substances?

[MicroBob]

When making bacterial cultures it is important to keep out contamination with bacteria and fungi that have nothing to do with the sample. One way to keep the sterile culture plate sterile is by means of hard UV radiation (while using appropriate personal protection). If you do everything right you will see different bacteria develop. But the process to discern them is quite laborious: The microscope doesn't show a lot, dot, dash or snake shape. Staining is already fairly involved and the needed sunstances not available for everyone everywhere. So it is the question whether the result will satisfy you after al the work involved.

[Wes]

Some of his videos are inane nonsense.

Could you post some examples in the interest of curiosity?