This room is called a "Transfer Room" because it has a blower outside that forces air through a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, removing most bacteria, molds, yeasts, dust etc.. This creates a room that has "very low particulate" air making it more suitable for working with microorganisms without the threat of pure cultures getting contaminated.
This technician is using a Zeiss Phase Microscope to view liquid live cell suspensions in "Phase" mode, which allows him to observe motility, cell size and shape, morphology, age, sporulation, as well as purity of a culture, while the cells are live and multiplying.
When this microscope scope is arranged to view a dried and stained culture smear, the staining characteristics such as Gram positive - (blue) and Gram negative - (red) can reveal what type of microorganism is present as well as the purity of a culture.
Also in this "Transfer Room" on the right is a Laminar Flow Hood. This hood has a blower that forces air through a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, producing a laminar (no turbulence) transverse flow of "very low particulate" air across the bottom of this hood. This creates a "sanitary field" at the bottom of the hood in which technicians can work with microorganisms without getting them contaminated with unwanted microorganisms (68, 98, 230).
Craig Bremmon
CEBTech Services
503 11 th Ave. SE, Suite 5
Aberdeen, SD 57401
bremm001@nvc.net Phone: 605 226-3595
Fax: 605 225-0467