Painting With Microbes: Matt Andrews F03 – Exponential Sunrise

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Title: Exponential Sunrise

The intention here was to portray a sunrise over water, with the backdrop of the UAF. We live in an exponential world, whether it is as everyday as the light which lets us see, the sounds we hear, the technology which surrounds us, or even the dirt under our fingernails. The world is built on exponential growth and the education we are developing here at the UAF helps us to understand some small part of it.

I had created this scene on sever plates with Micrococcus luteus (for the golden sun and reflection) and Serratia marcescens (for the red water), I was hoping for a bit more color from the Serratia  but I am still happy with the overall effect.

A6: Painting with Microbes

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Emily Werner

F02

Escherichia coli- I used this on the EMB agar because it ferments lactose with the specific differential media and creates a green sheen color to it. I thought this would be appropriate for the northern lights.

Enterobacter aerogenes- The color of this microbe is a yellow-white. I used it for the moon and the stars in the photo. The bacteria is anaerobic because it too turned black on the media due to fermentation. I had overlooked that when choosing the bacteria. The stars that I dabbed onto the plate didn’t show up so I’m thinking that there wasn’t enough bacteria present to start a colony or it was still undergoing the lag phase of replication.

Citrobacter freundii-   This was used for the river and the mountains. I wanted to go for a shadow style look for the mountains.

 

Each bacteria was gram negative so they showed up well on the plate as this agar specifically selects for only gram-negative. The agar was a dark red to begin with but lightened up over the course of 4 days.