Paint Germs
Using only a Petri dish and microorganisms, the American Society of Microbiology challenged scientists from around the world to an art contest.
Scientists—or artists if you prefer—cultured microscopic bacteria, protists, and fungi on top of agar plates into a multitude of shapes and colors.
From fascinating symbols and geometric shapes, to impressionistic tributes of Van Gogh and Warhol, some artist-scientists even delved into pop-culture with a superhero comic and the Doctor Who TARDIS.
“We consider this an excellent opportunity to showcase the beauty of organisms that usually go unseen” -microbialart.com
Who knew you could get so creative with microbe art?
Starry Night by Melanie Sullivan – Washington University School of Medicine
Superheros by Sanne Westhoff & Zheren Zhang – Universiteit Leiden
Harvest Season by Marai Eugenia Inda – CSHL (3rd place)
The Streptomyces Sky by Joseph Sallmen – Duquesne University
Untitled by Al-Wakra Hospital Microbiology – Hamad Medical Corporation
Wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey by Ella R. – Northwestern University
Yeast Go Viral by Paul Rowley – University of Colorado
NYC Biome MAP by Christine Marizzi – Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory & DNA Learning Center (2nd place)
As American as Andy Warhol by Ella R. – Northwestern University
Hunger Games by Lizah van der Aart – Leiden University
Who got first place?
You can see the list of winners at http://www.microbeworld.org/backend-submitted-news/1998-announcing-the-2015-asm-agar-art-winners-agarart