Monday 23 January 2012

Natural acid

Nature never ceases to amaze. In my job at a high profile Plant Sciences University department I'm very privileged on a daily basis to work alongside some truly inspirational researchers and world leading scientists. There's also some uber-geeks, toffs and tories but I guess you get that with any walk of life. Anyway, I was walking out of my lab the other day and couldn't help glancing at the wall, the reason being that the image you see below just jumped out at me from a display of current research. A friend and colleague, Fernan has been studying how plant and microbial cells divide using some advanced microscopy techniques. The image that you see below is simply uncontrolled, unedited, naturally occurring bacterial replication. The different colours are just different strains of bacteria and the patterns formed as they multiply. I think you'll agree that this is some pretty trippy shizzle and makes for some quite beautiful psychedelic artwork. For more amazing images and further explanation of this, Scientific American has just written a feature here: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/oscillator/2012/01/17/bacillus-subtilis-for-missoni/
If anyone wants a closer look, do pop round my gaff as a large framed signed copy is just about the be hung in the living room...


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