Painting With Microbes

Microbes are everywhere (ubiquitous) in nature: in soil and water, on dust particles floating in the air, on the surfaces of laboratory bench tops, and even on the hands of a microbiologist. They come in all different shapes and varieties. When it comes to microbes, they are like fingerprints. No two microbes are alike and are very diverse. When grown on solid surfaces like nutrient agar, bacterial colonies vary with respect to their size, color, shape (form), margins, elevation, optical properties and texture. Some are naturally pigmented, while others can be artificially induced to produce pigments. We studied the growth properties of a variety of bacteria in our Microbiology laboratory class. We will harness the different growth properties of bacteria to produce agar art as a way to showcase their versatile nature and their diversity