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The color of micro-organisms (fungi, bacteria, algae, and such) is due to different colored substances in the cells. For instance, bacteria use variants of chlorophyll (the green in plants) but absorb light of different wavelengths creating natural colors of purple, pink, green, yellow, orange, and brown.
While a few of the images have been color enhanced or stained with dyes for better viewing under a microscope, and the Petri dishes contain and added vivid color of a growth medium, microbiology is a wonderful source of color inspiration.
Photo by estherase
 
Photo by estherase
Photo by estherase
 
Photo by Toby Ciranjiiva Tatsuyama-Kurk
Photo by euthman
 
Photo by euthman
Photo by DavidJThomas
 
Photo by DavidJThomas
Photos by AJC1 & AJC1
 
Photos by AJC1 & AJC1
 
Photo by AJC1
Photo by AJC1
Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph showing Salmonella typhimurium (red) invading cultured human cells.
Header photo by estherase
Sources: madsci.org & microbeworld
26 August, 2008 11 
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Pulp Fict…26 Aug, 2008
It really shows you how colour is at the microscopic level.
:D 
SparrowLP26 Aug, 2008
how great :)
I did a pattern in honor of E.coli a while back.
 
Miaka26 Aug, 2008
This is a really cool article! thanks for posting :)
I made this a while back, it reminds me of photo #2
 
R3V0LUTii…26 Aug, 2008
My mother's a microbiologist. :D
I can't remember which type, but there's a strand of something related to MRSA that looks pretty neat. :) 
lightning…26 Aug, 2008
This is pretty amazing! Cool post! 
lizcrimso…26 Aug, 2008
very cool. my brother's a microbiologist. i got him some giant microbes for Christmas. i think i first heard about them on this site. 
plch27 Aug, 2008
Inspired by my dauly job with Escherichia coli :
 
sublimice27 Aug, 2008
You do know that microscopic images are not colorful at all. It is just grayscale. The captures are almost always colored in photoshop before being published.
I don't know about the culture dishes, but it is not uncommon for pictures in scientific publications to be pained on with colors for clarification.
klariart27 Aug, 2008
Great post!
I agree with sublimice. Yet, my work revolves around creating an invented colorful microscopic world. So similar to these, but paintings not photos.
www.klarireis.com
kay-sy19 Oct, 2009
just wanted to clarify that colony-forming bacteria are actually colored in plates (depending on its agar)... one common example is the E.coli which really is in greenish metallic sheen (of course, in macroscopic view) it's not photoshop edited... and yes, an unstained smear will only produce a grayscale colored.. a much appreciated view would be a stained one.. it's a beauty..
but take note to handle it cautiously...  You must be logged in to post a comment.  8 Trackbacks So Far... Hooray!
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