“Everyone liked it so much it was epic!
The colour, the rendition ’twas magic!
He clapped along with all to be safe!
Though he did not understand which was tragic!”
Being a Portrait sketch artist (self proclaimed!); abstract paintings and sketches are not usually my cup of coffee (I drink coffee everyday and like to keep my tea on special days!).
Now you have a group of art which are not only abstract but also have their culture! Bacterial culture by the way! In fact there is a whole group of people who use bacterial culture for abstract art in petri dishes!
It is known as Agar art!
Read on!…
Now firstly have you heard of Agar Agar? Well those are the common culture media used in labs all over the world!
So Agar has a long tradition in food applications.
The discovery of it being a culture media itself is a story like the discovery of Penicillin!
Apparebntly, in the 17th century, a Japanese innkeeper named Minoya Tarazaemon, noticed that some leftovers of a seaweed soup gelled, after being thrown away during a cold winter night.
Its industrialization as a dry and stable product started, in Japan, at the beginning of the 18th century. Later, in the first years of the 20th century, it was introduced into the West and its production by industrial freezing was initiated!
In the beginning, the agar industry mainly relied on naturally grown biomass while now, cost-effective cultivation of red seaweeds enabled the expansion of agar and carrageenan industries. About 90% of the agar produced is for food applications, the remaining 10% being for bacteriological and other biotechnology uses!
We all (most at least!) know how the agar is used for the culture and growth and study! Well starting from Alexander Fleming himself, the culture is now used as an art!
Creators use either naturally colorful microbes, like the red bacteria Serratia marcescens, or genetically modified microbes, like the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae transformed with violacein genes, as ‘paint’ and various types, shapes and sizes of agar as a ‘canvas.’ In fact, the original agar artist was none other than Alexander Fleming himself!
In order to preserve a piece of microbial art after a sufficient incubation, the microbe culture is sealed with epoxy.
Microbe species can be artistically chosen for their natural colors to form a palette. Suitable species of bacteria, Yeast species – which are fungi – used in microbial art include Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yellow–white) Aspergillus flavus (yellow–green spores), Aspergillus ochraceus (yellow), Aureobasidium pullulans (black), Candida albicans (whitish buff) and Protist species used in microbial art include Euglena gracilis (photosynthetic, green) and Physarum polycephalum (yellow–green)!
The biochemist Roger Tsien won the 2008 Nobel prize for chemistry for his contributions to knowledge of green fluorescent protein (GFP) that has been used to create art-like works! In fact just like the normal art competition, there are many Agar Art competition all over the world! Now that may be music for many microbiologist all over or may make some normal people sick! Music of course reminds me of birthday celebrity Rajesh Roshan!
Now reduce the bacterial culture in your mouth by brushing your teeth and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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