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Learn how extreme value statistics explains the "inoculum effect" in bacterial growth through this 37-minute conference talk from the Workshop on "Extremal Statistics in Biology" at the Erwin Schrödinger International Institute. Explore the century-old mystery of why bacterial colonies experience shorter lag times before growth begins when started with larger initial cell populations. Discover how researchers used millifluidic droplet devices to monitor hundreds of P. fluorescens populations with controlled cell numbers, revealing that lag time patterns follow extreme value theory predictions. Examine the experimental evidence suggesting that exit from lag phase depends on cell-to-cell interactions, supporting a model where leader cells signal and trigger growth for entire populations. Understand how statistical sampling versus collective population effects contribute to this fundamental microbiological phenomenon through quantitative analysis of lag time distributions, variance scaling, and population dynamics.
