Researchers from Duke University discovered that a sponge is a better incubator than a petri dish used in labs at providing the perfect environment for a great diversity of bacteria to thrive. It is not only that sponges are often dirty with food pieces left unwashed in there, it is also the structure of the sponge itself. Some bacteria do well isolated whereas other bacteria thrive more when living with a great diversity of other microorganisms. For the latter type of bacteria, the sponge structure provides a perfect ‘mixing-house’ environment very similar to soil, and thus allows this type of bacteria to thrive. It was found threw a series of experiments that the structure of a sponge provides a very simple but very effective home for great microbial diversity.

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