
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
The bacteria in a lab culture double every 30 seconds. After four minutes, there are 524,288 bacteria in the culture. How many were there at the beginning of the experiment?

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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