Foot fungus! And Science!

Cleaning up my desk area at work, I found an expired bottle of tryptic soy broth.  What on earth is that?  It a liquid used as a growth medium for bacteria.  I'm not sure why exactly we had a bottle at work, but we did.

 

Hmmmmmm, what to do with a bottle of stuff that will grow any bacteria you put in it?  Where could I find some interesting bacteria in a house full of smelly little boys?

Swab stinky little boy feet, of course.

At first they all ran away screaming, convinced that I was going to use this bottle to grow the fungus ON their feet.  Like I was going to dump this stuff on them and the next morning they would wake up with furry fungus feet.  I finally convinced them that the foot fungus was not going to grow on their feet, but that we were going to grow the fungus that was already on their feet in the bottle.  We dug out some Q tips, swabbed, and dipped.

About a week later, and the broth was distinctively murkier than it had started out. 

 

I told Noah to open the bottle. I think he was mildly concerned that I was trying to get him to open it, rather than open it myself. With good reason.

The pressure had built and the rubber stopper popped out right in his face.  I think it scared him, plus he got the first blast of what smelled like a rotting carcass.

I tried to get Ella to smell it.  She wouldn't do it.

Levi and Luke cowered on the couch, and refused to get anywhere near me.  Paige told me to get the cap back on, because at this point the whole downstairs was starting to smell like the fridge had been turned off for an entire month.

So I did what any rational person would do... find the kid who doesn't know any better.  Who still trusts her Dad even though he is carrying a little bottle and telling everyone to smell it, while they all flee the other direction. She leaned right over and took a big whiff.

A few days later, I took it to work to show a few people there.  Then I disposed of it in the garbage can, but not before popping in open to see if it had gotten any more potent.  It had.  I accidentally got one drop on my finger.  Not being the brightest bulb in the box, I stuck that finger right under my nose and sniffed.

Oh. My.

I have a pretty strong stomach, and almost no sense of smell... but I about ralphed right there in the back parking lot.

Of course, that finger did prove to be a very useful sneak stink attack when I got home that day. 

"Hey kids, smell my finger!"

Ahhhhhh, science!