About the author

Nick Oswald

Nick is a molecular biologist-turned-publisher. After a PhD in Developmental Biology and an eclectic seven years in biotech he is now Editorial Manager of Neuroendocrinology and the founder and Editor-In-Chief of Bitesize Bio. You are welcome to connect with Nick on LinkedIn

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Just a bit of fun for a Friday… I’ve often thought that some of what we molecular biologists do with staining and things could easily pass for artwork, but I’ve never seen anything like this fantastic agar plate artwork posted on Wikipedia. It shows a San Diego beach scene drawn on an agar plate using an eight color palette of bacterial colonies expressing fluorescent proteins.

The colors are derived from GFP and the red-fluorescent coral protein dsRed and include BFP, mTFP1, Emerald, Citrine, mOrange, mApple, mCherry and mGrape.

Very clever!!…

Artwork by Nathan Shaner, photography by Paul Steinbach, created in the lab of Roger Tsien in 2006.