"Michael Witty" <mw132 at mole.bio.cam.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:Pine.SGI.4.33.0204041446020.5518869-100000 at mole.bio.cam.ac.uk...
> . . . or you can do an experiment. Grow 100ml E. coli stationary phase
> culture. Take a small sample and count the cells (microscope or serial
> dilutions). Centrifuge the rest (tared tube). Weigh the cells. Divide
> weight by number of cells. Depends if you want to suffer from
> having to make assumptions or from experimental error! Mike.
Surely, though, you're going to have a problem with this because you've got
all of the water between the cells in the pellet? Although centrifugation
gets rid of a lot of moisture, it doesn't get rid of all of it.
Of course you could get round this by working out the dry mass of the cells,
by doing exactly the same as is suggested above, freeze the pellet and
lyophilise.
