Buzz Out Loud Lounge forum: 1 Day in on the Earbud/Bacteria lab...

PLEASE! let me know.

-Alex

I am a fourth year bacteriology student and I think that I know what type of bacteria you'll find. The bacteria in your ear will most likely be the same as the bacteria on your skin. There are two major types of bacteria that grow on your skin, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus. The first is generally much more common.
Neither of these two types of bacteria will grow very well on nutrient agar (they are usually cultured on a type of agar called yeast extract chloramphenichol, or YGC, agar), but you may get some growth nonetheless.
Btw, I think the claim that there will be a 700% increase in bacteria in your ears after just an hour is probably incorrect. The time for one cell of either of these types to double is about 35 minutes to an hour and a half depending on the growth conditions. That means that you might have a hundred percent increase in that time but that is pretty unlikely. Skin flora tend to grow very closely together (they are generally harmless to you and actually keep other bacteria away by taking up all the space on the surface of your skin). The fact is that they simply wouldn't have the room to grow that much.

growing stuff on petri dishes is fun, anyway.. haha

you'll get growth but it should grow slowly. There will probably be small white colonies and, if you're part of the 40% of the population that carries S. aureus, some small yellow ones. (S. aureus is actually extremely pathogenic)

if you like bacteria and this kind of experiment, you should really think about a major in microbiology. its a lot of fun and you get to take tons of labs where this is the kind of thing you do.

There was nothing to see in any of the petri dishes.... so I am going to try and speed them up by:

1. Not cleaning my ears and (keeping them covered during showers)
2. Obtaining YGC.

-Alex

And then I'll restart.

And since they grow on the body, I've had them incubating at ~98 degrees (F)

Thanks for the tip,

Alex.


PS: I'll be away thursday-sunday-- so will only be able to try lab once more.

...if, as William Burroughs said, "Language is a Virus", podcasts should be ripe for rampant growth, no?

you need to do a further test after you finished this one- but this time a control test , using a new pair of ear buds each time- too check that the accumulation of bacteria is not from being in your ears to start with.

But please be careful not to get bleach in your ears, there are some lengths to which it really isnt worth going in the name of science.
"May the schwartz be with you."

Seriously, don't put them in your ears right after.
You could get chemical burns.

Thanks I don't know weather or not you get bacteria on your earbuds but I did get a ear sore on my ear but I think it was from allergies instead of earbuds at all.