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Aren't these kind of pretty?
I have this nasty habit of owning several coffee mugs, and not cleaning them out after using them. So what inevitably happens is that I always have a mini microbial experiment in my office. Here are three examples, three different coffee cups (just so you have a bit of info on the media, I use a lot of sugar in my coffee, and also have a bit of cream).
It's been a while since I've dug into a Bergey's Manual so I figured it might be easier to see if there are any microbiologists out there who know what we have growing in these images (I especially like the top one - you can see these white areas of clearing).
What's kind of curious, is that the top one also exhibited a different kind of growth compared to the bottom two (which conceivably may have the same organism). What's that about? The colour of the mug?
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I can't identify them, but they look really freakin' cool!
Posted by: Timon | August 6, 2008 12:36 PM
That is completely disgusting and amazing. How thick is the growth?
Posted by: Helenmary | August 6, 2008 1:45 PM
This might be a good place to work it out:
"Urban aerosols harbor diverse and dynamic bacterial populations."
Posted by: Stephen | August 6, 2008 2:03 PM
I have a neighbor who never (and I do mean never) cleans the coffee mug in his car. His comment is "It's impossible for one-celled creatures to hurt you."
I do hope that this is not your philosophy? :0
Posted by: Dean | August 6, 2008 2:16 PM
It's hard to tell from a photo but to me the middle one looks like most of it might just be congealed cream and sugar that sort of started to crystallize. I take my coffee similarly and have similar coffee cup habits; these photos are all too familiar...
Posted by: nmc | August 6, 2008 2:28 PM
I say sequence it and find out.
Posted by: Sandra Porter | August 6, 2008 2:51 PM
His comment is "It's impossible for one-celled creatures to hurt you."
He apparently never met a necrotising streptococcus infection he didn't like, I guess. (My mould allergy would also disagree with his statement.)
Posted by: Interrobang | August 6, 2008 2:56 PM
Bonsai blue cheese? I can see a craze starting.
Are those white bits areas of no growth or growth of a white microbe?
Posted by: eddie | August 6, 2008 3:43 PM
They're a zone of no growth, or a clearing induced by whatever was there previously.
The second cup does look like it's just congealed matter, but the bottom cup looks as though there are colony type things?
Posted by: David Ng | August 6, 2008 4:34 PM
From experience I'd say the first one looks like mold, the others like thick sugar rests.
Posted by: Till | August 7, 2008 5:05 AM
Just for a bit of ye olde pareidolia, the bottom of the third one looks (to the amateur eye) sorta like a disected eye. Eh?
Posted by: Avi Steiner | August 7, 2008 3:46 PM
God,they are pretty and cool, and disgusting and ugly at the same time.
Posted by: IBY | August 8, 2008 12:48 AM