Penicillin, derived from the soil mold Penicillium, was the primary antibiotic used to cure bacterial infections after being discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming. Briefly following its discovery and mass production bacteria began expressing resistance to this Nobel Prize winning medical breakthrough. Bacteria causing pneumonia, toxic shock syndrome, and gonorrhea were among many of the penicillin-resistant infections that arose over time and ultimately led to death. (Lewis)
[...] Using sterile technique, a small sample of 0.1 ml of cells were transferred from each of the six culture tubes to one Petri dish with ampicillin and one Petri dish with no ampicillin. Sterile beads were added to each Petri dish to assist in spreading out the bacteria cells by sliding the dishes around causing the beads to somewhat evenly distribute the cells. All twelve Petri dishes were then placed in an incubator for 21 hours at C to encourage growth of bacterial colonies in the dishes. [...]
[...] These among other errors may have had an effect on the outcome of the results. After performing this experiment and drawing conclusions we are able to propose new questions and ideas to research and investigate. We observed how E. coli was able to reproduce under specified conditions; however it would be interesting to see how additional types of bacteria would reproduce under the same conditions. Altering the bacteria used is one approach; another possibility would be to use an alternative antibiotic to replace the ampicillin to determine if bacteria were more or less receptive to other forms of antibiotics. [...]
[...] The amount of ampicillin and time exposed in the incubator are the independent variables and were varied in the experiment to observe change. The amount of growth is dependent on the amount of ampicillin present and time spent in the incubator, making it the dependent variable. The control in the experiment was the sets of Petri dishes containing no ampicillin in either the liquid medium or the Petri dish. E. coli was used as the experimental bacteria to observe the results of exposure to the antibiotic ampicillin. [...]
[...] The Petri dishes containing ampicillin in the liquid medium as well as the Petri dish will experience the least growth of all. Finally the portion that had ampicillin in the liquid medium but none in the Petri dish will experience more growth than the dishes containing ampicillin in the Petri dish alone, but less than the ones with ampicillin in both. Materials/Methods Twelve different Petri dishes were used. Six of the Petri dishes contained a solid medium containing the antibiotic ampicillin and the remaining six dishes contained a solid medium with no ampicillin. [...]
[...] (See Table 1.) Overall the cultures with no solid growth medium containing ampicillin experienced the most growth with the exception of culture four which was slightly less than the one with ampicillin and culture six which both the ampicillin and non- ampicillin dishes experienced lawns. The section averaged results mimicked the trends we had observed earlier in our own cultures. (See Table 2.) There is an increase in the number of colonies in the cultures that had been in the incubator for a longer period of time. [...]
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