Question

Define viability.

Answer 1

Hint: Viability is the capacity of an object which can be living, artificial, etc. to maintain itself and the concept of being alive or capable of doing processes for live reproduction and development. In terms of microbiology, viability means count of living cells in a culture.

Complete answer:
Viability is a versatile term, which can be used with different means in situations and conditions. Its definitions also differ according to the subject, like for biology its meaning is state of living but in business it means a continuous increment in the profit with time.
In biology, viability is the state or condition of being alive and an organism can perform multiple tasks like respiration, reproduction, development, evolution, digestion etc.

Additional information: The term “viable” came from Mediaeval Latin language, from the word “Vitabilis” which means “capable of life”. Examples of viability are living cells, seeds, bacteria, viruses, etc. Sometimes, viability means chances of winning or success.
In some experiments, like antibiotic resistance, drug testing, drug interaction mechanisms, etc number of living cells is an important parameter, which is also known as viability of cells and cell count can be determined by methods like flow cytometry, plate counting method, etc.

Note:
 In microbiology, viability means the number of total living cells present in a culture. In natural selection, viability means the amount of survivors after the geographical limits or after natural selection. In pregnancy, viability is a shortest time period in which a mother can give birth to a healthy child.