bio.display

Yesterdays experiment with growing Photobacterium Phosphoreum as a liquid culture came to fruition today. It seems that the ‘botched’ liquid culture from two days ago came to light today as well. The following images show the result, in a pitch dark room with some reflection off the wall (well, a tiled bathroom), at 10sec, f/4, ISO 800:

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 10sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 10sec, f/4, ISO 800

In short, I prepared two 100ml cultures (one PP BH and one PP LumA)  in a 500ml Erlenmayer flask each, with the following composition each:

• Nutrient Broth: 8g/1000ml -> 0.8g
• NaCl: 30g/1000ml -> 3g
• Glycerol: 10g/1000ml -> 1g
• CaCO3: 5g/1000ml -> 0.5g

The ‘botched’ bottle from two days ago had the same ingredients, but in cca. 180ml of water. The result is well visible in a dimly lit room. I personally can’t tell the difference between the PP HB and the PP LumA variants.

The bacteria light up only when you oxygenize the culture, for example, you shake / stir the liquid culture. after that, it stays visibly bright for about 7 minutes. See the following image sequence, taken in a loosely lit room in 1 minute increments, at 3s, f/4, ISO 800:

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, right after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 1 minute after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 2 minutes after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 3 minutes after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 4 minutes after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 5 minutes after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 6 minutes after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800

Photobacterium Phosphoreum, 7 minutes after stirring, 3sec, f/4, ISO 800