Microbiologist Transforms Bacteria Into Photo Art

Adorning your living room mantel with a petri dish full of germs normally wouldn’t sound appealing. But once you take a look at Zachary Copfer’s unique creations, you might be intrigued — if you’re not already running to the bathroom to wash your hands.

Copfer is a Cincinnati-based microbiologist-turned-artist who figured out a way to create photographs in bacteria, as shown in the video above. To create this "bacteriography," as he calls it, Copfer uses a process similar to darkroom photography: he replaces the enlarger with a source of radiation and, instead of photo paper, he uses living bacteria on a special plate. Read more...