nutrient agar

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Word: Nutrient Agar

Part of Speech: Noun

Definition: Nutrient agar is a type of gel used in laboratories to help grow bacteria and other microorganisms. It contains nutrients that these tiny living things need to survive, and agar is the substance that makes the mixture solid like jelly.

Explanation:

• What it is: Imagine nutrient agar as a special food that scientists use to grow tiny living things, like bacteria, in a lab.
• How it works: The agar acts like a solid plate where the bacteria can live and grow. The nutrients in the agar provide the food that the bacteria need to multiply.

Usage Instructions:

1. Preparing Nutrient Agar:

   • Mix agar powder with water and heat it until it dissolves.
   • Add nutrient substances (like beef extract or peptone).
   • Pour the mixture into petri dishes and let it cool until it becomes solid.

2. Using Nutrient Agar:

   • To grow bacteria, scientists might place a sample (like a swab from a surface) on the nutrient agar.
   • They then cover it and wait for some time (usually a day or two) to see how many bacteria grow.

Example Sentence:

• "The students used nutrient agar to observe how bacteria grow from samples taken from different surfaces in the school."

Advanced Usage:

• In microbiology, nutrient agar can be modified by adding specific nutrients to support the growth of certain types of bacteria, making it a versatile tool for scientific research.

Word Variants:

• Agar: The gel-like substance used in nutrient agar.
• Culture Medium: A broader term that refers to any nutrient solution used to grow microorganisms.

Different Meanings:

• Agar: Outside of nutrient agar, agar can refer to a gelatinous substance derived from seaweed used in cooking and desserts.

Synonyms:

• Growth medium
• Culture medium (more general term)

Idioms and Phrasal Verbs:

While "nutrient agar" doesn't have idioms or phrasal verbs directly associated with it, you might hear phrases like "cultivate growth" or "grow and develop" in discussions about microbiology.

Academic

Noun

1. any culture medium that uses agar as the gelling agent

Synonyms

• agar