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Stains
In actuality, your slide is likely teeming with bacteria. In colonies made up of millions of cells, bacteria can be a wide range of colors
and textures. But the vast majority of individual bacterial cells are nearly completely colorless. The cell wall and cytoplasm of one
individual bacterium is simply not going to be visible enough for you to see, even with your expensive light microscope. What you
need is something to enhance the visibility of that one bacterium. What you need is a stain.
A stain is a chemical compound used to enhance the visibility of a microscopic object or organism. But not all stains are created
equal. The type of stain and the technique you use depends on what you're looking at, what structure you're looking for, and what
you want the staining procedure to accomplish. Let's take a quick look at a few of the more common categories of staining
techniques.