![[ Colony of Myxococcus ]](./myxobac2.jpg)
B, C. Aggregation of vegetative cells to produce fruiting bodies just behind the colony margin shown in A. Figure B shows clearly that the cells are heaped on top of one another near the bases of the fruiting bodies; most of the slime tracks further away from these points contain few or no cells.
D. Part of a small fruiting body crushed by an overlying cover-clip. The elongated vegetative cells (bottom, left) were near the base of the fruiting body, the fully differentiated myxospores dark spherical bodies) were near the apex of the fruiting body, and cells in the centre of the fruiting body (top right) were in different stages of transition into myxospores.
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Using your formula, Dr Forland quickly finds that after 15 hours of growth,
the number of bacteria is only about 340'000.
What a relief! 340'000 sounds like a lot, but Forland knows that it's not very much in the world of bacteria. This colony will fit easily in its Petri dish and not continue to grow on the floor -- the lab is save for the next few hours at least! But.... hmmm.... exactly HOW save is the lab? Forland wants to know the growth velocity after 15 hours. How many new bacteria are produced per hour? Hmmh... Dr Forland knows not much about this, but he realizes that he needs to take the derivative of the growth function N(h). If you have the position or size of something, you take the derivative and have the rate of change, which is velocity. That's what Forland remembers from his years at the good old Engineering College at Haugesund, but that's a long time ago... The fact is, Dr Forland has forgotten how to take a derivative! His assistant (that's you) sighs and writes down some more lines |