Culturing the critters on an 8-year-old's hand

boing
1

[Read the post]

2 Likes
2

Fascinating. I wonder how a (supposedly) relatively clean adult’s hand would compare

4 Likes
3

I wouldn’t have thought it wise to allow a child to play in an agar medium, inside or outside the house!

12 Likes
4

Let alone exposing a child to culture!

30 Likes
5

Boo. Hiss.

4 Likes
6

Tough crowd tonight.

4 Likes
7

It’s the child who provided the culture!

Edit: And it squarely beats pretty much any school pageant.

6 Likes
8

OK, you’ve grown them now figure out what they are.

9

Data viz: Petri Chart

10

Yellow opalescent dome shaped colonies are Staph aureus, and some varieties can cause MRSA and sepsis.

1 Like
11

Let alone exposure to any viral medium!

4 Likes
12

Okay, that’s fascinating. And horrifying. I’m guessing Ms. Sturm never has trouble getting little Whassisname to wash his hands ever again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go wash my hands… In bleach and boiling water… Pretty much for the rest of my life.

4 Likes
13

So are they making the petri dishes bigger nowadays, or are the eight-year olds getting smaller?

3 Likes
14

Ha, when I was 8 they gave us the petri dish to take home as a souvenir. We’d crack holes in the lid and introduce new things to grow in there.

4 Likes
15

You can get a pretty big Petri dish. 150mm ones here:

1 Like
16

If you listen carefully you can hear them screech “Freemasons run the country”

5 Likes
17

Man, I hated it when I was sent to play outside in the agar medium. I’d be in the house, reading a book or working on a microcontroller and my mom would come in the room and say, “Look at what a nice day it is! You should go play outside! In the agar medium!” And off I’d go (because I really was a momma’s boy), out the door, and in the big smooshy box of agar. If I were lucky, pop would’ve made a fresh batch out of potatoes, but usually it was from last week and had some bugs in it. Ugh.

7 Likes
18

I wanna see before and after puberty.

3 Likes
19

Agar is made out of seaweeds. (Albeit potato dextrose agar touches potatoes in a way.)
(Where’s that pedant stuff everybody talks about?)

3 Likes
20

Ah, the fabled pedant pendant and pennant hat trick! I think you might have to speak with @OtherMichael about that in order to get the hand off. Or maybe it’s a once a year thing?

Hey, as long as your technically correct, that’s it’s own reward, right?

3 Likes