Make Your Own Microbial Medley: A Famous Investigation To Do At Home
The poet William Blake prodded us to “see a world in a grain of sand,” and this simple project does just that—only with a cupful of mud! Just add a few other easy-to-find ingredients to create an entire ecosystem for bacteria called a Winogradsky column. Over several weeks, different species will separate into visible layers depending on how they use—or don’t use—oxygen, light, and nutrients such as carbon or sulfur. It’s a living lesson in how microbes play an essential role in the life cycle as they reuse and recycle nutrients, not unlike the way the bacteria that inhabit our bodies break down foods to give us energy. Or as Rob DeSalle, co-curator of the special exhibition The Secret World Inside You, likes to say, “The human digestive tract is one huge Winogradsky column.”
Click the image to see the instructions and visit The Secret World Inside You, now open!