Bacterial Clogging (IMAGE)

Princeton University

Bacterial Clogging

Caption

Over a period of about 40 hours, bac­te­r­ial cells (green) flowed through a chan­nel, form­ing a green biofilm on the walls. Over the next ten hours, researchers sent red bac­te­r­ial cells through the chan­nel. The red cells became stuck in the sticky biofilm and began to form thin red stream­ers. Once stuck, these stream­ers in turn trapped addi­tional cells, lead­ing to rapid clog­ging.

Credit

Knut Drescher, Princeton University

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