Elora Skye Swan Lab Section FO1- 342.
For my microbe art, I chose to try and represent geometric shapes. I chose this because nature actually mimics geometry, and I wanted to express that through use of microbes. The first plate I did was MAC, which changes to yellow with non lactose fermenting colonies. I wanted color change in order to make the artwork a little more interesting. I made sure to check it the day after so I still had the gradient of yellow and pink in the media. For bacteria, I used A. aerogenes, and Chromobacterium violaceum. The dark purple growth is the violaceum and the pinkish growth is the A. Aerogenes. The shape above, while I wanted to make dodecahedron, I ended up with an isosachedron. I think it still turned out really well, and I liked the way the colors came together. This means that one of my bacterial strains has non lactose fermenting properties, my guess is the violaceum due to the fact that the yellow change is haloed around that particular bacterium.
My second plate, which is only inoculated with E- coli, which is a gram negative, anaerobic intestinal bacteria, was on the Eosin methylene blue plate. I chose this particular combination, because when you combine the two, the E-coli will have a green sheen as it matures due to that fact that it is an intestinal bacteria. I was able to get this sheen, and it ended up looking really pretty although this was not my favorite art inoculation plate.
All in all I really loved this lab, It was relaxed, and I was able to be creative with my science which is not something a lot of professors do.
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