Micro Rounds

Every week we have microbiology rounds where we go down to the clinical laboratory and a resident walks us through interesting cases. It reminds me how much I've forgotten since second year. As she talked through the various types of agar, the antibiotic tests (like the optochin disc), and gram stains, I had vague memories of how I once knew these things. It's an odd thing to say, but I miss that knowledge even though it's not too pertinent to what I do on a day to day basis. So I had a good time learning about obscure tests and the morphology of strange bugs.

Image is of S. aureus gram stain, from Wikipedia, shown under GNU Free Documentation License.