Drawing with Bacteria

Yet again art on agar is solid proof of why I love geeky scientists to an inappropriate level.

Here is the work on one such man - Niall Hamilton - a part-time microbiologist from New Zeland. On the side, he is a photographer of microorganisms.

He makes his pieces with "run-of-the-mill ubiquitous environmental species" of bacteria and fungus. It is fairly complex with him using different species to get different colours.

Suffice to say hardcore biology knowledge is needed to create these as well as access to things such as sheeps blood agar in the case of the skull for example. The black in the snowman, however, is made from a yeast commonly found near bathroom sinks.

Unlike the image of Isac Knewton on a petri dish (artist unknown) which I found on the Saatchi Gallery website. There is also six similarly uncredited pieces of photographic transfers on a petri dish.

Lets not forget there is also the opinion that naturally occurring biological patterns can be art and this is certainly confirmed by a visit to the Petri Dish Art Gallery which shows perfectly that bacteria create beautiful little works of art.

Finally I include an image where the artist used petri dishes as subject of their work.