Question: I would like to know some of the names of the materials that you use at work and which one is your favourite .

Jenn Wadsworth answered on 18 Mar 2016:

I use bacteria called bacillus subtilis, various dyes (the one in the picture on my profile is called crystal violet), also plates of nutrient agar to grow bacteria on. The environmental materials I irradiate along with the microbes are mainly iron oxides and perchlorates. The lamps I use are UV and X-ray cathodes. My favourite material is a chemical that shows you whether you have any oxygen in your bacteria culturing liquid, which turns all sorts of funky colours 😀