The researcher prepared an initial culture by adding 1.2 × 10^-5 g of dried bacterial cells to 1 dm³ of growth medium. The average dry mass of a single bacterial cell is 1.2 × 10^-12 g. Calculate the initial number of bacterial cells in this culture. Give your answer in standard form.

Under ideal conditions, the population of this bacterium doubles every $36minutes$. Using a starter culture containing 1.0 × 10⁷ cells, the researcher plots the log-transformed population size, ${\log }_{10}(number\; of\; cells)$, against time $t$ (in hours) over the first $18hours$. Determine:

• The coordinates of the starting point of the growth curve at $t=0h$.
• The coordinates of the ending point of the growth curve at $t=18h$, using the standard biological approximation $2^{10}\approx 10^3$.
• A description of the shape of the growth curve under these ideal conditions.