““York from a Dutch neighbor who had immigrated from Java.” People living in the warm East Indian climate noticed that birds gathered a substance from seaweed and used it as a binding material in nests. The material did not melt and did not appear to spoil—bacteria cannot degrade it. Hesse passed on to Koch the idea of replacing gelatin with agar-agar. Koch immediately formulated the agar with nutrients into a medium that melted when heat-sterilized and solidified when cooled””
