Microorganisms grow rapidly and multiply rapidly
Microorganisms "give birth" at an alarming rate. For example, Escherichia coli can multiply in 12.5-20 minutes under suitable growth conditions, dividing 3 times per hour, from 1 to 8. It can multiply for 72 generations every day and night, from 1 bacteria to 4.7223665 sextillion (weighing about 4,722 tons); after 48 hours, it can produce 2.2 × 1043 offspring, so many bacteria weigh about 4,000 Earths. The table below lists the generation time (time required to divide once) and daily proliferation rate of several microorganisms.
Of course, due to the limitations of various conditions, this kind of crazy reproduction is impossible. The doubling of the number of bacteria can only last for a few hours, and it is impossible to multiply indefinitely. Therefore, the number of bacteria propagated in the culture medium can generally only reach 1-1 billion per milliliter, and the maximum is 10 billion. Despite this, its reproduction rate is still ten million times higher than that of higher organisms.
This property of microorganisms is of great significance in the fermentation industry, which can improve production efficiency and shorten the fermentation cycle.
