"Benson's Microbiological Applications has been the gold standard of microbiology laboratory manuals for over 35 years. This manual has a number of attractive features that resulted in its adoption in universities, colleges, and community colleges for a wide variety of microbiology courses. These features include user-friendly diagrams that students can easily follow, clear instructions, and an excellent array of reliable exercises suitable for beginning or advanced microbiology courses. In revising the lab manual for the fourteenth edition, we have tried to maintain the proven strengths of the manual and further enhance it. We have updated the introductory material in many exercises to reflect changes in scientific information and increase relevancy for students. Critical thinking questions have also been added to increase the Bloom's level of the laboratory reports. Finally, the names and biosafety levels of microorganisms used in the manual are consistent with those used by the American Type Culture Collection. This is important for those users who rely on the ATCC for a source of cultures. Guided Tour Through a Lab Exercise Learning Outcomes Each exercise opens with Learning Outcomes, which list what a student should be able to do after completing the exercise. Introduction The introduction describes the subject of the exercise or the ideas that will be investigated. It includes all of the information needed to perform the laboratory ex-ercise. The fourteenth edition has improved its student relevancy message within these introductions, explaining to students why they should care about the lab"--