Shifting the Decimal
I’ve been making my way through “Fungi: Discover the Science and Secrets Behind the World of Mushrooms” to help bolster my general understanding of the wider kingdom of Fungi. The current section I’m on has really been drilling home the absolutely massive amount of spores that humans come into contact with on a daily basis.
The book obviously focuses on fungi, but we’re inundated with pollen, bacteria, viruses, allergens, and many other micro organisms to the point it would make some people crazy and, in some cases, sick.
When starting out with mycology, it’s apparent right off the bat that there’s a focus on utilizing sterile technique. However, with everything in the air how is it possible to actually be sterile? Every step in all of our sterilization processes is intended to do one thing: shift the decimal.
This type of risk management comes in plenty of forms. Making use of a SAB or LFH helps settle the air or simply pushes away the potential swirl of particles floating around. Spraying and wiping with isopropyl alcohol helps kill anything lingering on surfaces. Washed hands with nitrile gloves take away the bacterial utopia that is our hands. A face mask covers our mouth and nose from exhaling spores and bacteria. Prepackaged sterile equipment such as petri dishes, scalpels, and syringes. Down to the preparation of media for culture growth such as grain, LME, substrate, all needing to be autoclaved.
Each intentional step in each part of the work moves us towards a successful practice by attempting to mitigate and reduce the likelihood of contamination, and thus shifting the decimal. You never quite reach zero, but the closer we can get, the better results we are going to have.
~barkeep