Agar Diffusion

A simple demonstration of diffusion through agar media to visually illustrate that viruses diffuse through plate media.

Red Food Coloring

This was done with a single drop of food coloring containing FD&C Red 3 and Red 40. Be careful not to disturb the plate and cause the drop to run until it is compltely absorbed into the media.

Starting Drop

File:Reddropdiffusion2.jpg

One Hour Later

File:Reddropdiffusion3.jpg

Two and a half hours later

After sitting overnight the liquid was completely absorbed into the media and the plate can be inverted.

One day later, inverted

Two days later, inverted

Notes

Carbon black has a particle size closer to that of a virus and might be more appropriate to model viral particle diffusion.

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