I inoculated some media with bacteria to grow overnight so I could make some stocks. When I came back the next morning, I noticed something odd. The culture on the right should look just like the culture on the left. Instead, it looks purple, and the cells don’t look very happy! Apparently, sometimes autoclaved toothpicks can cause this. My poor bacteria got the short end of the stick. Poor unhappy bacteria T_T In the  6 years that I’ve used toothpicks  to inoculate media, this is the first time that I’ve seen this. I guess I should use a different method from now on. Just in case. How curious.