This is something I just now remembered I could get back into. How do we forget things that we have once found fascinating and inspiring, that we used to be into? Life just brings so many new fascinating and inspiring things. I was a microbiology major with a minor in art at California State University of Sacramento in the early 90's and I used to dabble in Microbial Art. The following is copied straight from the blog http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/10/van_gogh_picasso_pollock_and_s.html as I think it's a fantastic representation of Microbial Art.
"Van Gogh, Picasso, Pollock, and ... Serratia marcescens? - October 20, 2011"
Although they can't pick up a brush, bacteria have created their own painting for the first time.
Simon Park, a microbiologist at the University of Surrey, notes that many people – including Alexander Fleming – have painted with bacteria. But now, in collaboration with watercolourist Sarah Roberts, he says the bacteria themselves have been turned into painters.
“We prepared a standard agar plate, about 20cm by 20cm,” he explains. “Sarah chose some pigments – some of which she thought might be toxic, some of which she thought the bacteria might like and painted circles on the agar. Then we inoculated the agar with a red pigmented bacteria and incubated it overnight.”
The result was the image you see above. As the Serratia marcescens bacteria (the red colour) grew, they moved over the surface and “picked up the paint [the other colours] and moved it around according to their own ‘desires or whims’”, says Park.
The result makes visible some of the results of the bacteria’s movement, swarming, communication and even coordinated behaviour.
Park says he hopes this – and other outreach work – will help the public understanding of bacteria.
“I sit in a laboratory and work with what I think are some of the most wonderful things out there, but the public all they ever see of bacteria are the horror stories when people are selling bleach. They very rarely look at the good side,” he told Nature.
Image: Park / Roberts / S. marcescens
Simon Park, a microbiologist at the University of Surrey, notes that many people – including Alexander Fleming – have painted with bacteria. But now, in collaboration with watercolourist Sarah Roberts, he says the bacteria themselves have been turned into painters.
“We prepared a standard agar plate, about 20cm by 20cm,” he explains. “Sarah chose some pigments – some of which she thought might be toxic, some of which she thought the bacteria might like and painted circles on the agar. Then we inoculated the agar with a red pigmented bacteria and incubated it overnight.”
The result was the image you see above. As the Serratia marcescens bacteria (the red colour) grew, they moved over the surface and “picked up the paint [the other colours] and moved it around according to their own ‘desires or whims’”, says Park.
The result makes visible some of the results of the bacteria’s movement, swarming, communication and even coordinated behaviour.
Park says he hopes this – and other outreach work – will help the public understanding of bacteria.
“I sit in a laboratory and work with what I think are some of the most wonderful things out there, but the public all they ever see of bacteria are the horror stories when people are selling bleach. They very rarely look at the good side,” he told Nature.
Image: Park / Roberts / S. marcescens
More of Microbiologist Dr. Simon Park's and other's Microbial Art at http://www.microbialart.com/galleries/simon-park/
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