Lower Austrian Festival of Research 2022
Lots of public interest at the stand of the "Water Quality & Health" department on 7 October 2022 - "On the trail of microorganisms" - microbiological diagnostics through the ages.
Whether villains or superheroes, detecting microorganisms has always been a challenging task due to their tiny size. At its research stand, the Research Field Water Quality and Health presented the fascinating possibilities of traditional as well as modern, optical and molecular biological examination methods to make microorganisms "visible" to us humans.
In addition to counting bacterial colonies with the naked eye on various agar plates or in wells under UV light, bacterial cells were made visible as fluorescent dots in an automatic flow cytometer. The big and small visitors were able to find out who had polluted the water with faeces in a demonstrative game using a simple PCR model: Humans, ruminants, pigs or was it chickens after all?The KL team of Alexander Kirschner, Claudia Kolm and Carmen Rehm, supported by ICC Water & Health staff from MedUniWien Lena Campostrini and Stefan Jakwerth, answered the public's many questions about water expertly and with great enthusiasm from 2pm to 10pm.
