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invictatitoday at 6:00 PM1 replyview on HN

Hockey stick? Glass beads? What happened to the good old inoculating loop?


Replies

evolarjuntoday at 7:22 PM

Loops are good for streaking. It's hard to get even coverage with a loop, so loops would make it hard to get accurate CFU/ml counts. Loops are more likely to get you single colonies even if you're inoculating from a high density culture, so loops are usually used when picking single colonies is the goal. Sterilized cheap flat toothpicks work pretty well for streaking too.