The Colors Of Microbiology: Bacteria, Fungi & More

   26 August, 2008  8 Comments on The Colors Of Microbiology: Bacteria, Fungi & More  Posted in Inspiration, News, Science

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.

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Photo by estherase
Hektoen agar staphylococcus aureu

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Photo by estherase

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Photo by estherase
urine plate unidentified unicell
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Photo by Toby Ciranjiiva Tatsuyama-Kurk

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Photo by euthman
small cell carcinoma Pancreas FNA
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Photo by euthman

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Photo by DavidJThomas
Fungi growing more Fungi growing

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Photo by DavidJThomas

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Photos by AJC1 & AJC1
Bartonella Helicobacter pylori

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Photos by AJC1 & AJC1
Bacteriophage attack Pseudomonas

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Photo by AJC1

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Photo by AJC1

Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph showing Salmonella typhimurium (red) invading cultured human cells.

Header photo by estherase

Sources: madsci.org & microbeworld

Author: evad
David Sommers has been loving color as COLOURlovers' Blog Editor-in-Chief for the past two years. When he's not neck deep in a rainbow he's loving other things with The Post Family (http://thepostfamily.com/), a Chicago-based art blog, artist collective & gallery.