Kim, Nice job introducing your species and drawing comparisons between B. silvestris and another species. However, I think that comparing your species' to either subtilis or anthracis may be a bit more beneficial because you are using them as a control. Further, I understand that you want to look at the heat resistence in respect to food safety, but I think this can be developed further. Specifically, mention why you chose 80C water bath. Is that the temperature which we cook our food to typically or just an arbitrary temperature? Overall, good introduction.

Mary, your introduction is great. You clearly demonstrate significance and highlight a lot of the important information about all species discussed. However, you did not clearly mention your goal. Although the general goal is to characterize the species', you should explicitly state what you intend to study and a general overview of how you intend to study it. Additionally, it might be helpful to emphasize the similarities between your controls and species' of interest. Overall, your introduction is really good and does not require much more work!

Jacob, The amount of work you did in identifying conditions in which your species sporulates was impressive. It clearly took a lot of time and research in order to sporulate these species. I would like to see this expanded a bit more. Support your use of SGX2 media with the literature you found. Specifically, comment on the similarities between your species and the other species (If I remember correctly, those plates were used for a different species) and your background for using that media.

You can also go into a little more depth on the the conditions under which sporulation did NOT occur. try to highlight the significance of those negative results.

Andy, You did a nice job of discussing the goal of your research and prefacing how you accomplished it.However, I would like to see a bit more on the background of these procedures. Where did you get your motivation for testing the temperature and sporulation? Additionally, discuss the past literature (if any) on B. pycnus. P.S. the first letter of the species should be lower case.

Nice