I use bactoincinerators in my microbiology lab course and we never 'flame' tubes, and we have almost no problems with contamination. I have seen other research labs that didn't use bunsen burners either and never had issues. Is there any publication that discusses this phenomena? Basically I think that in modern, HVAC-climate controlled settings the chance of bacterial contamination is very minimal (in work with bacteria, i don't think that you could work out on the bench with tissue culture experiments effectively, that is another level of aseptic requirements) Am i crazy to think the use of bunsen burners and the 'sterile field' is mostly paranoia and muscle memory? Has this every been studied?