Abstract
DURING an investigation of bacterial aerosols formed by spraying from a suspension, a striking effect was observed which does not appear to have been reported previously. A small quantity of washed B. lactis aerogenes in distilled water was sprayed from an atomizer and the resulting aerosol passed through an evaporation tube to dry the organisms. Samples for electron microscopy were obtained with a thermal precipitator by direct deposition on to collodion-covered specimen grids. Instead of elongated bodies, spherical particles, the shape of which was verified by shadowing at 45°, were found (Fig. 1, above). The diameter of many of the particles was two or three times that of a sphere of the same volume as a given organism, and all particles were uniformly opaque with no sign of a cell wall. Similar shapes were found when sedimentation samples were taken, so the effect could not have been caused by heating during thermal precipitation.
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CREASEY, J. Spherical Pseudomorphs in Aerosols of B. lactis aerogenes. Nature 194, 603 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/194603a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/194603a0
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