Lab report
Abstract
The contemporary microbiology world has witnessed a gradual interest in identifying the types of microbes that are resident in the human body more so due to plausible health benefits they may bring and because of their possible detrimental effects. In this regard, fear of the pathogenic consequences of microorganism in the body has pioneered the advent of hand sanitizers aimed at checking this effect. As a standard procedure in microbiology especially in laboratory experiments, sanitizers are used in eliminating microbes from the surface of the hand. The conducted experiment in this write-up thus aims to analyze the presence of microbes before and after washing. In this experiment, mixed results were obtained whereby a high bacterial load was present despite sanitizing the hand for 20 seconds. Plausible explanations for this results are documented and discoursed in the manuscript. Furthermore, the manuscript documents the culture results of microbiota found in the nose which is alarmingly high. Both of these results and procedures are discoursed in this manuscript and plausible explanations for austere results given. Finally, the manuscript offers suggestions for future lab endeavors. It is proposed that in order to better microbiological results in similar experiments in the future, research rigor is needed whereby labs used in similar experiments are controlled to minimize contamination of cultures. Additionally, training of microbiologists in conducting culture experiments is necessary in order to minimize errors.
Introduction
It is believed that the human body is host to billions of microbes most of which being harmless but some being either pathogenic, or commensals. Additionally, the presence of microbes in the environment is undisputed. The conducted experiments sought to document the presence of micro biota in the nose and in the hand.
Equipment Used: List form
5 Petri dishes
5 melted deeps of T-soy agar
8 sterile cotton tipped applicators
12 or more different environmental sources.
Bacti-Cinerator III
Pieces of paper
Pencil/Pen- for documentation
Fine-tip Permanent Marker – to mark Petri plates
A Rubber-band
Results
Nose
The environmental sources result under review is from the specimen taken from my left nose. My injured nose had formed a scab and I cultured the tissue from the injury in order to identify the resident bacteria in the scar. Culturing took 48 hours and the following is the observed bacteria morphology. Small colonies where observed after two days which were circular, convex and entire. More than 200 colonies where observable thus it was designated as "too many to count" (tmtc).
Figure 1 illustrates the observable colonies from this environment source #2
Hand washing
Both the left and the right hands where assessed before and after washing for the resident micro biota and the results were documented. For both hands, it was expected that after washing, results would yield less microbes. However, results for the left hand after washing produced mixed results as illustrated below. The right hand on the other hand yielded less microbes after washing which was expected.
Figure 2 and 3 left and right hand before and after washing after 48 hours and 1 week
Discussion
Nose
The documented "too many to count" (tmtc) colony in the nose culture is quite telling. These innumerable number of microbes may be due to the fact that the cultured tissue from the scab in the nose had a numerous presence of immunological elements such as the presence of neutrophils. Circular colonies were observed from the nose cultures which were tmtc mainly because of the filtering function of the nose which makes gives it a higher reservoir of microbes. Even though a high number is expected from the nose culture, plausible contamination in the incubator may lead to this unprecedented high microbial count.
Hand washing
The hand washing results were yielded expected results with the exception of the left hand after washing. According to Kavanagh, (2014) washing with warm water, is a standard microbiological procedure when handling specimen and for lab safety, is effectual in eliminating microorganisms. This was the case for the right hand which when swabbed before washing produced numerous microbes in the culture media. A paltry 3 colonies where seen after washing. However for the left hand, after washing results yielded more colonies in the culture media than before. Plausible contamination of the hand after washing, (contamination mainly from the tap) may be responsible for this mixed results. Additionally, contamination of the plate may count for this result.
Implications for research, recommendations and the future
The conducted research on the microbiota present in environmental sources offers insights into the numerous and varied microbes that are present in almost all of spheres of life. Research vigor can however be augmented so as to document the presence of these microbes better. Such research processes, more so in labs involves exclusive designation of labs so as to avoid contaminations. Training microbiologists in better ways of minimizing errors in culturing and media preparations would also be vital. Finally, future engagements in documenting micribiota in humans may go further to isolate those using biochemical and molecular techniques and to also characterize them.
Conclusion
Conclusively, the microbial world is vast and one that offers more room for research. The conducted experiments offers but a glimpse into this world.
Reference
Kavanagh, F. (Ed.). (2014). Analytical microbiology. Elsevier.
