Scientists make the Mona Lisa with bacteria
Paintings not only made with paint, scientists thought at the University of Rome. Bacteria are also suitable for this. That turned out, because the result was a Mona Lisa, made from bacteria? How was this possible in the world?
The bacteria reacted to light, and so the scientists could lead them to certain positions. The bacteria are seen as micro robots which can propel themselves. Now it appears that the bacteria can be set in motion by external stimuli, in this case light.
Mona Lisa with bacteria
The bacteria use propellers, with which they can propel themselves through liquids. And how, because in a second they can cover their own length ten times. Normally the bacteria move with oxygen as fuel, but now the researchers have also made light as fuel through genetic modification.
By light patterns they have led the bacteria to a Mona Lisa pattern. With a light strip, where bacteria are the paint, the speed of the bacteria has to go down. They do this by locally reducing the light at that spot so that they multiply in that spot. By projecting a picture of the Mona Lisa, the bacteria replicated this.
These bacteria have more applications than counterfeit paintings. They can be used in 3D printing of microstructures and in microscope research. But it is especially fascinating to see how they form a painting!