Microbiologists bring art to life with agar plates 

"SEEMINGLY SIMPLE ELEGANCE" (ASM/ARWA HADID)

One of my favorite science competitions — the American Society of Microbiology’s Agar Art contest — is out with this year’s winners. For the fifth year now, the science-meets-art contest tasked microbiologists with creating visual art on agar plates, which are traditionally used to grow microbes in the lab. And this year’s winners — chosen from nearly 350 entries across 43 different countries — did not disappoint. First place in the Professional category went to “Seemingly Simple Elegance,” created by Oakland University undergraduate Arwa Hadid. The artwork used nine different organisms to create the picture. Another winner of note, in the “People’s Choice” category, is "Hungarian Folk Art," by Zita Pöstényi, a microbiologist at diagnostics company Synlab in Hungary. Check out the full list of winners — and their plates — here.