Abstract
A BASIC problem in microbiology is that of determining the proportions of live and dead organisms in a bacterial culture. The standard procedure is to spread a known volume of diluted culture over a solid nutrient medium and then, after incubation, to count the colonies which develop. On the assumption that each colony came from one bacterium, the number of viable organisms per millilitre of original culture can be calculated (but not the percentage viability).
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References
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VALENTINE, R., BRADFIELD, J. A New Procedure for Bacterial Viability Counts and its Biophysical Applications. Nature 171, 878 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/171878a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/171878a0
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