We're a Batch Culture
and that's not good
(C)2001 Richard Katz
I'm trying to come up with a catchy phrase so people will stop raping their planet. I'd like to come up with something that will have the same effect on planet-raping that "Nuclear Winter" had on the "Arms Race".
Back then, everybody had to have nuclear winter explained to them a little bit. After everybody got the picture of just what nuclear winter meant, the saber rattling was over.
So everybody will have to have "Batch Culture" explained to them. They will get the picture of why it's not good to continue being a batch culture.
I would do the explaining myself, but my purpose here is to come up with something catchy. An explanation of batch culture (as biologists, particularly microbiologists use the term) is bound to be boring. Go find a microbiologist -- amateur, professional, student, teacher, or professor -- and they'll tell you, maybe even show you, what batch culture is. *
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* But listen closely to the part of the "batch culture" explanation/definition about how bugs stop growing -- you know, the "be fruitful and multiply" thing. Keep your ears perked up for two things: (1.) Why do they stop growing? and (2.) Did they have enough oxygen?
The answers, IMHO: (1.) They stop growing, and that's all you know about it, unless -- and this never happens -- one particular ingredient in the culture medium is severely limited on purpose, in which case they stop on a dime and give you nine cents change; and (2.) No. Nobody ever actually measures the dissolved oxygen concentration in a batch culture. Not that I've ever seen.