giant microbes!!!!!

Originally Posted by kskerr

My normal flora seem to be doing fine, I have plates in the incubator and some sitting out so their color will develop (I use a reagent that causes my bacteria to turn blue while others remain white, it is $450 for 1 gram so I call it blue gold), as far as I know they are all doing fine, though I do not like how some of the plates on the bench came out smeary instead of clear, makes counting the number of bacteria on the plate difficult and inaccurate.

Please tell me you watch Mythbusters and saw the episode on fecal particles on toothbrushes!

[kskerr]

Originally Posted by Pollock II

Please tell me you watch Mythbusters and saw the episode on fecal particles on toothbrushes!

Well not the way I would recommend to get your dose of Bifidobacteria but to each their own I guess...

I love that show but rarely get a chance to watch it, do not watch much tv in general. Could you recap it for those of us who sadly missed it...

They put 100 toothbrushes in different parts of a bathroom to see if the myth "keeping your toothbrush next to the toilet will get poop on your toothbrush" was true.

They also kept another toothbrush in an entirely different area.

After the 2 weeks of this, they found that all of the toothbrushes, including the one NOT kept in the bathroom had fecal particles on it.

Microbes = the topic of this whole forum. You're railroaded hundreds of threads with random stuff. And how can a thread that's one true purpose is telling people to show up on a certain day really be able to stay on the topc of "Let's all show up on this day". All the people who actually post on this board have already said that they're pretty sure they're unable to come due to previous engagements.

[kskerr]

Originally Posted by Pollock II

They put 100 toothbrushes in different parts of a bathroom to see if the myth "keeping your toothbrush next to the toilet will get poop on your toothbrush" was true.

They also kept another toothbrush in an entirely different area.

After the 2 weeks of this, they found that all of the toothbrushes, including the one NOT kept in the bathroom had fecal particles on it.

I question their detection method(s) then, feces are not really an aerosol and so I do not see how they could travel all over the bathroom and out of the bathroom. What was or were the detection method(s)?

i wish i could grow microbes...

Originally Posted by kskerr

I question their detection method(s) then, feces are not really an aerosol and so I do not see how they could travel all over the bathroom and out of the bathroom. What was or were the detection method(s)?

They used the toothbrushes for 2 weeks, and then rubbed them on petree dishes to see if they had fecal stuff on them. They called in some science researcher who was well trained to do it.

Originally Posted by mazuac

i wish i could grow microbes...

Go to your local science/ hobby store and ask them for some agar gel. Follow the directions to prepare it, the wander around your house with scotch tape!

Take the tape and stick it to something that you think has LOTS of germs on it (door knobs, toilet seats, kitchen and bathroom counter tops). Make sure you remember where each bit of tape was from in your house. Stick the tape on teh agar gel to transfer the assumed germs from the tape to the gel.

Store them in a dark place and wait. Soon you'll have things growing on your agar! It's really cool and really fun!

its more people than i thought!wow!

[kskerr]

Originally Posted by Pollock II

They used the toothbrushes for 2 weeks, and then rubbed them on petree dishes to see if they had fecal stuff on them. They called in some science researcher who was well trained to do it.

That is hilariously flawed from the sounds of it. They were looking at bacteria on something that sat out exposed to air and was put in someone's mouth repeatedly for 2 weeks, hahahaha!!! Even assuming the used selective media to try for kinds that are normally associated with feces it is absurd. Most fecal associated bacteria can be found in the environment as well and not just in feces. Generally the mythbusters are great and design wonderful experiments but I think this one is not one of them. The fact that their control (the toothbrush(es) that were outside the bathroom) came out positive should have raised an eyebrow.

Personally I would look for bile or something that is only found coming out of the colon and not in the mouth, the chemical route most likley. Can't look for DNA or cells because those are found in the mouth, unless it were cell types from the colon (not sure how different they are though).

If you want to use microbial methods you would have to find a way of ensuring that the bacteria on the brush came from feces, most likely the feces of the person(s) using that bathroom, perhaps label those bacteria somehow, but most methods would also label the oral flora as well, plus a popular labeling method is using radiolabeling and feeding people radioactive bacteria is generally not considered a good idea... Hmm perhaps some genetically engineered E. coli that glows in the dark on special media, I made that once, though they would have to use a different kind than I did since mine was designed to not live outside of a very specific environment (to prevent it from colonising us students, not that it would have likley hurt us, but it did contain antibiotic resistance genes we added as well to help select for it, very common practice but those genes could possibly transfer to a pathogen in the gut and cause issues...).