The comic · Genetics of Disease (GenD)
Panel 36Bioethics debate: research vs risk · 2026-09-30 
Panel 37Aseptic technique 
Panel 38Culturing and colony data lab · 2026-10-01 
Panel 39Mutation, HGT, and superbugs · 2026-10-02
Week 8 of 22
SEPTEMBER 30 TO OCTOBER 2
Fiction. No real student, family or grade appears.
Research against risk. Every trial asks somebody to take a chance for people who do not exist yet.
Everything is contaminated unless you actively prevented it. Flame the loop, do not put the lid down, work near the flame, move deliberately.
Streak plates and colony counts. My plate had contamination in one quadrant, which is my own technique showing up as data.
Bacteria do not only inherit resistance from a parent, they can hand genes sideways to unrelated bacteria. Horizontal gene transfer.