How does the location of a body part effect the bacteria population present on the said part?
What has more bacteria the inside of a person's mouth or a person's index finger?
My biology class is learning how to conduct experiments, and last week for our experiments we were broken into groups and given instructions to swab any two different objects. After swabbing our two objects, we were then suppose to wipe each swab onto a divided petri dish in order to see which object had more bacteria. My group could have chosen any two things in the entire universe, but yet we decided to see if there was more bacteria in our mouths or on our index fingers. I guess none of use felt like getting out of our seats that day. Also, the eye contact made with each member of my group as I furiously swabbed the inside of my mouth can never be undone.
After completing the surprisingly exhausting tasks of swabbing the inside of our mouths and our index fingers and wiping the swabs onto a petri dish, my group was then told to wait a week so that the bacteria could grow visible to the human eye. My team predicted that our mouths would contain much more bacteria than our index fingers. For some reason my naively young professor told my group of four females, "You all think you have dirty mouths, huh?" There might not be anything weird about that statement. It just did not seem like a particularly scholarly thing to say at the time. I left my bacteria lined petri dish behind that day, not really expecting much to germinate because I am a little conceited and consider myself the cleanest person on the planet. I know that at first glance anyone can easily infer from my mud stained converse that I am not the cleanest person on the planet, but I have to believe that I am for the sake of vanity or something... Reality is difficult to face. Does the image below look like the bacteria that would come from the cleanest person's on the planets index finger and mouth? ABSOLUTELY NOT. So this is why I had to cheat science. 20160209_114150_188 On the left side of the above petri dish, you can see the bacteria from the inside of my mouth, and on the ride side, you can see the bacteria that came from my right index finger. …show more content…
According to my collected data, my group's hypothesis would be correct. Hurray! Sadly, science is never that simple. After getting over the initial disgust at my self, I began glancing at the rest of my group's dishes, and as they began to talk, I quickly realized that each of their petri dishes was the total opposite of mine. Every member of my group except me had more bacteria showing from their index finger instead of their mouth. The frustration and reinforced disgust I felt from this discovery was worth a petri dish all its own. None of the other individuals on my team had any where near the amount of bacteria growing from their mouth that I had. They did not even half the amount! I dreaded sharing our discoveries. Almost simultaneously, my whole group turned to look at my bacteria, a chorus of, "Ewwwwww!" followed as their first impressions. Then someone asked me as they pointed at the right side of
What has more bacteria the inside of a person's mouth or a person's index finger?
My biology class is learning how to conduct experiments, and last week for our experiments we were broken into groups and given instructions to swab any two different objects. After swabbing our two objects, we were then suppose to wipe each swab onto a divided petri dish in order to see which object had more bacteria. My group could have chosen any two things in the entire universe, but yet we decided to see if there was more bacteria in our mouths or on our index fingers. I guess none of use felt like getting out of our seats that day. Also, the eye contact made with each member of my group as I furiously swabbed the inside of my mouth can never be undone.
After completing the surprisingly exhausting tasks of swabbing the inside of our mouths and our index fingers and wiping the swabs onto a petri dish, my group was then told to wait a week so that the bacteria could grow visible to the human eye. My team predicted that our mouths would contain much more bacteria than our index fingers. For some reason my naively young professor told my group of four females, "You all think you have dirty mouths, huh?" There might not be anything weird about that statement. It just did not seem like a particularly scholarly thing to say at the time. I left my bacteria lined petri dish behind that day, not really expecting much to germinate because I am a little conceited and consider myself the cleanest person on the planet. I know that at first glance anyone can easily infer from my mud stained converse that I am not the cleanest person on the planet, but I have to believe that I am for the sake of vanity or something... Reality is difficult to face. Does the image below look like the bacteria that would come from the cleanest person's on the planets index finger and mouth? ABSOLUTELY NOT. So this is why I had to cheat science. 20160209_114150_188 On the left side of the above petri dish, you can see the bacteria from the inside of my mouth, and on the ride side, you can see the bacteria that came from my right index finger. …show more content…
According to my collected data, my group's hypothesis would be correct. Hurray! Sadly, science is never that simple. After getting over the initial disgust at my self, I began glancing at the rest of my group's dishes, and as they began to talk, I quickly realized that each of their petri dishes was the total opposite of mine. Every member of my group except me had more bacteria showing from their index finger instead of their mouth. The frustration and reinforced disgust I felt from this discovery was worth a petri dish all its own. None of the other individuals on my team had any where near the amount of bacteria growing from their mouth that I had. They did not even half the amount! I dreaded sharing our discoveries. Almost simultaneously, my whole group turned to look at my bacteria, a chorus of, "Ewwwwww!" followed as their first impressions. Then someone asked me as they pointed at the right side of