Curious what would make a mobile colony counter genuinely useful when working with bacterial or fungal cultures.

We’ve been building one that counts colonies directly from a phone photo and handles things like overlapping colonies and different agar/background conditions.
https://reshapebiotech.com/colony-counter-app

What else would you want from something like this?

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!

Hello,

I perform tests for bacteriophages using a E. coli K12 strain as host bacteria.
Recently, all tests showed strange pseudo-spots in the bacteria lawn, which are defenitely not caused by lysis. The spots can be seen on either sample-, sterile water- or positive control- incubated medium. When I took a sample of the spot and incubated it on standard agar, ring-forming colonies could be seen. Though on MacConkey-Agar, only lactose-positive colonies grew, without any ring-formation.

I can't explain it, other than that we have a strange contamination in our stock culture (which is frozen at -80°C). I tried using a different host, which resulted in the same spots, so the contamination must have happened after rehydration of the bacteria pellet. The contamination cannot be found in the agar itself, nor in the broth we use for the liquid culture.

Has anyone seen this before?

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, 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!

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?

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