Following three days of lackluster reproduction, a Broad Institute researcher confirmed Tuesday that a struggling colony of bacteria is likely going through a lot right now and doing the best it can.
Following three days of lackluster reproduction in a sterile agar environment, a researcher at the Broad Institute confirmed Tuesday that a colony of Escherichia coli is likely just going through a lot right now and doing the best it can.
The bacterial culture, designated Strain 814-B, has reportedly failed to synthesize basic proteins or form a standard biofilm since being introduced to the petri dish on Sunday morning. Rather than applying a chemical catalyst or disposing of the sample, lead researcher Kevin Lin opted to lower the incubator fan speed and give the microorganisms a little more time to figure things out at their own pace.
Laboratory logs indicate that while the neighboring control group has already multiplied into a thriving, highly infectious mass, Strain 814-B has mostly just clumped near the edge of the glass and stopped moving entirely. Lin documented in his daily report that the ambient laboratory temperature had been fluctuating slightly over the weekend, which he noted is more than enough to throw off anyone's productivity.
Not every microorganism is going to be a high-achiever right out of the gate, and honestly, judging them against a control group just feels unnecessarily competitive.
By late Tuesday afternoon, Lin had accessed the institute's primary clinical trial database to update the experiment's status, officially categorizing the bacteria's cellular division rate as totally fine and adding that they should not feel pressured to metabolize anything until they are ready.