The Resistance of Escherichia Coli to Uranium Ore

The purpose of this experiment was to compare the number of bacterial colonies formed by a standard, unmodified population of E. coli to the number of colonies formed by a population of E. coli that was previously grown with uranium ore for five consecutive generations. This research holds practical applications in society today because making E. coli resistant to low levels of nuclear radiation can help when removing uranium from waste sites. This provides an easy and inexpensive way to recover uranium from the environment. Methods of using bacteria to extract radioactive material are crucial for researchers and scientists in the near future as uranium is increasing in use among nations.

The data was collected by randomizing 60 trials consisting of growing E. coli in Petri dishes. Out of these 60 trials, 30 of the trials were standard E. coli, while the other 30 trials were the modified E. coli. For every trial, the number of bacterial colonies present were counted after 24 hours spent in an incubator at 37 degrees Celsius. Once all the data was recorded, a two sample t test was performed to compare the two population means to determine if the mean number of colonies of the modified E. coli were statistically greater than the mean colonies of the standard E. coli. The P-value generated was (1.6 * 10-4), which led to the conclusion that the modified E. coli helped form more bacterial colonies than the standard E. coli.

Research Conducted By:

Mohammed Ahmed
Fitzgerald High School

Charles Debczak
Center Line High School

 

 

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