Bacteria the Beautiful

What does Van Gogh and a microbiologist have in common? A "starry night!"

Van Gogh (a world famous artist) crafted one of his most famous paintings "Starry Night" in 1889. A hundred and twenty six years later, a microbiologist submitted his rendition of the painting for a very special contest. What contest? An art contest hosted by The American Society for Microbiology.

In small petri dishes using microbes (very small organisms—invisible without a microscope but found all over the Earth) and a jelly-like substance called agar, the team's microbiologics were challenged to create a piece of art. The results are not only stunning but even more proof that art and science aren't always on opposite sides of the train tracks.

Check out these small masterpieces made out of a little thing called, BACTERIA!

Starry Night

Crafted out of bacteria!

The original

Skeleton Head

Spooktacular!

"Neurons"

This piece won first place!

"NYC Biome Map"

This piece was constructed to resemble a map of NYC, pretty neat!

Other cool stuff:
Art   bacteria   starry night   van gogh   NYC   art contest   microbiology