Science of Weather: Bacteria and mold growth
(CBS DETROIT) - When it comes to your basement, the atmosphere really has a big effect.
For instance, you need a dehumidifier to take some moisture out of the air.
If you don't, you could start growing some nasty things in our experiment this week for our science of weather, we'll show you why that moisture makes all the difference.
We swabbed several objects in the news station, including a coworker's makeup brush and debit card.
Using a solution from algae called agar as food, the swabs were placed in Petri dishes and split between 2 locations.
A dark and humid drawer, and a sunny and dry window.
In a cool, damp area or a warm and sunny area, I think is rather telling.
In the damp and dark the bacteria thrived leading to the colony dishes you see here.
High humidity in basements is well known for leading to mold and bacteria growth, and it's extremely important to run one in a comfortable basement setting year-round.
Also, wash your makeup brushes, please.
Now that's the…nasty… science of weather.