Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Is there any other bacteria I can use besides E. Coli for the project, "What duration of ultraviolet light kills bacteria. I have already done the project once with E. Coli and I want to do it again but with a different bacteria.

Hi Katie,

We generally like to use E. coli because it can be so safe and easy to work with, but there are a number of other types of bacteria available on Carolina Biologicals (http://www.carolina.com/living-organism ... 3ACultures), so why don't you take a look and see if any of those sound interesting to you. Just make sure that you take the appropriate safety precautions for each type of bacteria.

I hope this helps!
JMP

Hi!
That's a really cool experiment you've got there! Another way to avoid dealing with dangerous bacteria and finding out new information would be to test UV light's general effect on yeast. This would be a really cool side project. It could even help you identify the differences between bacteria and yeast and why UV light affects yeast and bacteria in the way that it does. I'd love to know how your experiment turned/turns out! Good luck!