"Starry Night," the famous painting by Vincent Van Gogh, was recreated in a petri dish by an artistic microbiologist using bacteria in lieu of paint.
Melanie Sullivan, the artist, created it for the American Society for Microbiology’s annual Agar Art Contest,
Fox News reported Wednesday.
"The brown color is Proteus mirabilis, a bacterium known for its swarming motility that is a common cause of urinary tract infections," the society explained on Facebook.
"The white color is Acinetobacter baumanii, an opportunistic bacterium that can cause infection in people with weakened immune systems. It is often resistant to multiple antibiotics and can be spread around hospital environments. The blue-green color is Enterococcus faecalis, a bacterium that colonizes the GI tract and is a common cause of lower urinary tract infections as well as more invasive infections in immunocompromised hosts."
While the homage to "Starry Night" was a definitely crowd-pleaser, first place went to Mehmet Berkmen and Maria Penil, for their work "Neurons."
Second place went to Christine Marizzi, Genspace, and more than 50 participants who worked together to create the "NYC Biome MAP," an accurate map of Manhattan that included streets, waterways, parks, piers and more.
As USA Today reported, one participant was quite daring in their use of Chromobacterium violaceum, a flesh-eating pathogen, to create an outline of North Carolina.
A full photo album of the entrants can be viewed on Facebook.
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