One of the best ways of studying bacteria is to grow them on a petri dish, but only a tiny percentage of bacterial species will grow on them. The other 98% of them simply refuse to.

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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

• Petri dish: a shallow, circular, transparent dish with a flat lid, used for the culture of microorganisms.

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CREDITS

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Lizah van der Aart | Script Writer, Narrator and Storyboard Artist Cameron Duke | Director Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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REFERENCES

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Amann, R I, et al. “Phylogenetic Identification and in Situ Detection of Individual Microbial Cells without Cultivation.” Microbiological Reviews, vol. 59, no. 1, Mar. 1995, pp. 143–169, https://doi.org/10.1128/mr.59.1.143-169.1995

Ledford, Heidi. “Promising Antibiotic Discovered in Microbial “Dark Matter.”” Nature, 7 Jan. 2015, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2015.16675

Meysman, Filip J.R. “Cable Bacteria Take a New Breath Using Long-Distance Electricity.” Trends in Microbiology, vol. 26, no. 5, May 2018, pp. 411–422, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2017.10.011. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022

Šmajs, David, et al. “Genetics of Human and Animal Uncultivable Treponemal Pathogens.” Infection, Genetics and Evolution, vol. 61, 22 Mar. 2018, pp. 92–107, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.meegid.2018.03.015

Visick, Karen L., et al. “A Lasting Symbiosis: How Vibrio Fischeri Finds a Squid Partner and Persists within Its Natural Host.” Nature Reviews Microbiology, vol. 19, no. 10, 1 Oct. 2021, pp. 654–665, www.nature.com/articles/s41579-021-00557-0, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00557-0