Biology 3 - 13.7 Safety when using micro-organisms

Agar

Micro-organisms can be grown within a culture medium containing carbohydrates as an energy source for respiration. The culture medium also contains mineral ions and in some cases, supplementary proteins and vitamins. These nutrients are often contained in an agar medium which can be poured into a Petri dish.

Preparing useful products

In order to prepare products that are useful, uncontaminated cultures of micro-organisms are required. For this a number of precautions must be taken:

• Petri dishes and culture media must be sterilized before to kill micro-organisms that are…