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Countable is a relative term in microbiology. I like that the author stuck to the phrase "countable colonies", since colony forming units are not really "countable as cells".

Allan Konopka does a good deep dive into "The Great Plate Count Anomaly" here: https://thinkmicrobe.substack.com/p/the-great-plate-count-an...

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Ah, brings me back to the countless nights I spent counting plate after plate of HEK293 cells using a Haemocytometer [0], a light microscope, and a mechanical counter [1].

At least with HEK293 cells you could mostly tell if they were dead through the microscope (dead cells are darker).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemocytometer

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tally_counter

Sometimes I miss the benchwork, but moving into bioinformatics/data science full-time has been much better for my physical and mental health.

I've made the same transition and feel the same way. I miss the bench, but I don't miss the late hours, vending machine dinners, and Christmas day cell culture maintenance.

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