If you thought that the ubiquitous and versatile bacterium, E-coli only causes violent stomach upsets, read about its artistic side.
"As part of a contest to demonstrate innovative uses for genetically engineered organisms, graduate students in Texas and California have produced "living photographs" from sheets of bacteria growing in a petri dish.
The team engineered the intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli with two key mutations: one that causes it to produce a black pigment and the second that shuts down production of the pigment when the bacteria are exposed to light.
When an image from a 35 mm slide or other source is focused on the surface of the dish for a couple of hours, the bacteria respond to produce a permanent high-resolution copy, according to a report on the technique published in the current issue of the journal Nature…"
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