Bacteria can utilize many different things as vectors in order to promote their transmission. Insects, water, food, coughs and sneezes, sexual contact, and rain are just a few examples. The mobile phone appears to be no exception this rule. As part of BMS1035 Practical and Biomedical Bacteriology, an undergraduate module that I run, I get the students to to imprint their mobile phones onto bacteriological growth media so that we might determine what they might carry. From these results, it seems that the mobile phone doesn’t just remember telephone numbers, but also harbours a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil, etc.The images here are from the latest version of this experiment performed by the University of Surrey Level 4 UG students in 2014.
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Arrgh! Will using a cleaning wipe every so often help eliminate some of these?
Reblogged this on laurencowley and commented:
Geross
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This is an awesome project! Have you thought to try an characterize any of the bacterial colonies that grew? (and some of the fungi as well?) I may have to borrow this idea in the future!
Thanks Kristyn. Would love to characterise the colonies but we don’t really have the time in the lab classes