A biologist is studying a colony of bacteria that doubles every hour. If she starts with 100 bacteria, how many will there be after 8 hours?

Thu, 07 May 2026 21:34:22 +0000

**Why People Are Talking About a Colonies That Double Every Hour — and What the Science Reveals** When frontiers in biology and biotechnology converge, nothing fascinates more than exponential growth in living systems. One widely discussed example is a controlled bacterial colony starting with just 100 cells that doubles every hour. To a curious mind, the question arises: how many organisms exist after 8 hours? It’s more than math — it’s a window into foundational principles of biology, data patterns, and real-world applications. This phenomenon is not just theoretical; scientists study it to understand infection dynamics, pharmaceutical development, and industrial bioproduction. As curiosity grows around how biology responds at the cellular level, such simple models spark deeper exploration and informed insight. ### The Science Behind the Doubling: How Bacterial Colonies Multiply A colony doubling every hour follows exponential growth, a key concept in microbiology. Under ideal conditions—consistent nutrients, controlled temperature, and space—each bacterium splits into two, doubling its population each generation. The formula guiding this increase is:
**Final count = Initial count × 2^(time elapsed in hours)**
In this case, starting with 100 bacteria over 8 hours means:
100 × 2⁸ = 100 × 256 = 25,600 bacteria.