Vinogradskii, in contrast, studied physiological processes that
microbes altered dramatically in response to competition from
other microbial species in their natural habitat. From early in his
career it was obvious to him that the organisms he studied were
drastically different if grown in pure culture. Often they ceased
entirely the very activity he was trying to understand, e.g. Beggiatoa’s
ability to oxidize hydrogen sulfide in sulfur springs. It was
Vinogradskii who first showed this was the source of the granules
of elemental sulfur accumulated in actively growing cells of this
organism. Early on he developed the method of “elective culture”
(or “enrichment culture” as it is called today). Since he assumed
120 J. Strick / Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 48 (2014) 119e121nature had a species for each chemical transformation, one could
find it in any sample of soil or water by adding the nutrient only it
could selectively use for growth or conversely, by providing a medium
in which a key element like nitrogen was missing, so that only
an organism capable of nitrogen fixation could thrive. In such cultures,
one favored the growth of the desired microbe over all other
competing organisms and soon found that it dominated the culture