How to Use biofilm in a Sentence
biofilm
noun-
Baross at the time happened to be studying just such slime, known as a biofilm.
—Andrew Lawler, Discover Magazine, 22 Nov. 2010
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But the biofilms were made up of just two species of bacteria, B. fragilis and a strain of E. coli.
—Gina Kolata, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2018
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The biofilm is, in turn, a food bank for an array of animals—from worms and crabs to fish and birds.
—Paige Embry, Scientific American, 17 June 2020
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After a few weeks of pouring water over the sand, a gooey biofilm formed on top.
—Jonathan Schifman, Popular Mechanics, 8 Aug. 2021
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This will help prevent the formation of those biofilms.
—Brittany Anas, House Beautiful, 27 June 2023
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The plaque on your teeth is a biofilm; so too are infections on catheters, the slimy green of pond scum and the gunk clogging your bathtub drain.
—Carrie Arnold, Quanta Magazine, 2 Nov. 2022
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Bogan picked up a rock dotted with snails, which were grazing on the slimy biofilm of microbes.
—Ian James, AZCentral.com, 8 Sep. 2021
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At present, the researchers have no idea why the bacteria in biofilms are able to remember like this.
—Kat Eschner, Popular Science, 29 Apr. 2020
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An absence of biofilms means fouling will never get going in the first place.
—The Economist, 28 May 2020
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The most important part of brushing teeth is removing the biofilm of plaque.
—Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 21 July 2022
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These slimy biofilms typically have to be scrubbed off.
—NBC News, 17 May 2018
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This biofilm is sandwiched between two mesh electrodes, which transfer the electrons from the biofilm.
—Miriam Fauzia, Popular Mechanics, 15 Aug. 2022
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The team landed on a biofilm-boosting compound called apigenin.
—Matt Simon, WIRED, 30 Aug. 2022
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Others still, through the formation of colonies called biofilms on the surfaces of soil particles, help trap water in the soil.
—The Economist, 20 Feb. 2020
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Vets say that brushing is best because the mechanical action is what helps remove the biofilm on your dog’s teeth.
—Woman's Day, 15 Feb. 2023
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The bacteria in biofilm can cause some pretty nasty, hard-to-treat breakouts, Dr. Soleymani says.
—Amy Marturana Winderl, SELF, 11 June 2021
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Doniger mentions that her goal is getting her patients to floss and brush for two minutes twice a day to get rid of decay- and dental disease-causing biofilm.
—NBC News, 5 June 2020
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This process, never before attempted on this scale, reduced the pigmented biofilm to a fine ash.
—Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2021
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The bacteria that normally reside in the mouth grow as dental plaque, a biofilm that firmly attaches to teeth and oral surfaces such as the tongue.
—Frank Scannapieco, The Conversation, 17 Sep. 2019
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In the bathroom, for instance, water that comes into contact with a hard surface can create what's called a biofilm, a slimy film of microorganisms.
—Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, 3 Apr. 2018
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By contrast, Villa has found that biofilms seem to impart a protective effect.
—National Geographic, 21 Sep. 2016
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Like the biofilm around the rice roots, this mucilage houses nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
—Matt Simon, WIRED, 30 Aug. 2022
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Bathtubs can also grow what’s known as a biofilm, or a buildup of microorganisms that stick together to form a visible film—the infamous pink ring—around the tub or drain.
—Amy Marturana Winderl, SELF, 24 Nov. 2022
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Some biofilm probably has been present on the memorial’s marble surface from its early years.
—Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2021
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Many years of research on biofilm and migratory shorebirds at Roberts Bank and other areas illustrate the covert yet vital role that the slime plays in the ecosystem.
—Paige Embry, Scientific American, 17 June 2020
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One of her colleagues, Cynthia Sears, recently received a grant to study biofilms—the colonies of bacteria that grow in the colon and can either promote or prevent cancer growth.
—Greg Kahn, Smithsonian, 22 Mar. 2018
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The treatment worked in culture dishes and when the bacteria were given the chance to form a biofilm, a dense, three-dimensional mesh that can protect bacteria from drugs.
—John Timmer, Ars Technica, 18 July 2018
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Then the biofilms would stop expanding until the glutamate was replenished.
—Quanta Magazine, 5 Sep. 2017
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After all, a thin layer of mixed bacterial species — called a biofilm — coats every available ocean surface.
—Bob Holmes, Discover Magazine, 29 Sep. 2021
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The goal in brushing focuses on removing the biofilm of plaque from both teeth and gums, not allowing bacteria, fungi and viruses to grow in what is the second-greatest biodiverse home in the human body after the gut.
—Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, 21 July 2022
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biofilm.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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