Question

A scientist shines ultraviolet light on a colony of blue colored bacteria. She then places colonies of the bacteria in separate Petri dishes. After

allowing the bacteria to replicate for several generations, the scientist observes that some of the dishes now contain colonies with purple and
red colored bacteria. What can be concluded from this observation?

Answer 1

Answer
There were two types of blue colored bacteria in the Petri dishes. The two types were ones that needed high amounts of light and ones that didn’t need a lot of light.
Explanation
The bacteria that needed high amount of light adapted and became red to absorb the most amount of UV light and the ones that needed little to none light adapted to become purple to reflect the most amount of UV light.