[editor-surveyor]

"How does this happen when you start with a single organism?"

It doesn't. Bacteria do not live as single animals, but in huge colonies called a biofilm. Even if you tried to isolate one, you would not be sucessful, since they are constantly in the process of replication.

[js1138]

It doesn't. Bacteria do not live as single animals, but in huge colonies called a biofilm. Even if you tried to isolate one, you would not be successful, since they are constantly in the process of replication.

All you creationists and ID supporters out there: Is this your final word on the subject? Is this representative of anti-Darwinian science?

Anyone?

[ahayes]

It doesn't. Bacteria do not live as single animals, but in huge colonies called a biofilm. Even if you tried to isolate one, you would not be sucessful, since they are constantly in the process of replication.

It's not that hard, I did it a couple weeks ago.

1. Get an agar plate.
2. Get a bacteria culture.
3. Pipet a few microliters of culture onto the plate.
4. Spread around thoroughly with a sterile inoculation loop.
5. Incubate overnight.

Voila! If you did it correctly, you have individual bacterial colonies spotted around. Each colony is clonal, the offspring of one initial bacterium. That's the entire point of doing this, for many bacterial culture applications you need to start with bacteria that are genetically homogenous. While it takes a bit of practice to streak a plate with elegance and finesse, your average high school kid can obtain clonal colonies in bio lab.