[Histonet] Stain vs dye and control

[Jorge A. Santiago-Blay]

Dear Histonetters:

Last semester I taught a microbiology lab and, as I was reviewing for
class, noticed some lack of precision in the use of the terms "dye" vs.
"stain" in biology. Could someone help?

While I am on "stains", I have been following the emails on controls and
wonder a couple of things.

1. What would testing for bacteria on beef jerky, hot dogs or burgers
accomplish that is different (ideally better) that what one accomplishes by
pulling out from fresh cultures out of a medium (e.g. liquid, such as
broth, solid, such as slabs, agar)?  Is it the idea to test for bacteria in
an animal tissue? If so, would a solid medium (like someone mentioned
recently, such as agar) do?

2. An advantage of using fresh bacterial cultures of known Gram is that it
could be used to test whether the reagents are good enough. Last semester I
had the suspicion that one (or more) of our Gram reagents where not up to
par.

If you have any feedback, please feel free to email me directly at
blayjorge <@t> gmail.com . Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jorge

Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, PhD
blaypublishers.com
http://blayjorge.wordpress.com/
http://paleobiology.si.edu/staff/individuals/santiagoblay.cfm