Hasta La Gadget!

The magnifying glass. It’s good for more than burning ants, you classless juveniles. Because you can take funny photos with it, too! More »

If you zoom in on the surface of a vinyl record using a microscope, to the untrained eye it kind of looks like a series of mountains and valleys. It’s actually the waveform representation of a song or other sounds, but what would happen if you took a map of the Earth’s mountains and valleys and turned that into a record? The results, of course, sound terrible. More »

You know that expression that people say when they’re really good at something? The one that goes, “Oh, I can do [insert action here] in my sleep.”

Most people who make that claim obviously can’t back it up. But there’s an app called Sleep Art that will help you create works of art while you’re asleep – and you don’t have to be a really good artist to begin with. Heck, you don’t even have to know how to draw!

The Sleep Art app uses your iPhone’s gyroscope to monitor your movements and the microphone to listen to your breathing in order to create unique and personalized pieces of art – all while you’re sound asleep.

It was developed by Europe’s Ibis hotel chain, which held a contest where winners slept on a sensor-equipped bed and had a robot artist create special paintings of their sleeping patterns.

You can download the Sleep Art app from the iTunes App Store for free.

[via Dvice]

Back in my college days, I took microbiology and spent plenty of time in the lab culturing various bacteria. My microbiology professor hated it if we drew patterns or other than random circles or zigzags in our petri dishes. I once made the mistake of growing a nice E. coli “S” and had to start over.

Zachary Copfer, a microbiologist with a penchant for art has developed a new process of making actual pictures using bacteria and petri dishes that he calls Bacteriography.

The artist isn’t saying exactly how he makes these pictures with bacteria, but I’d wager he’s using some sort of screen printing method on top of the traditional growth medium. My personal favorite artwork that he has created is the velociraptor wearing bunny rabbit ears using E. coli.

He has also created some cool prints of Einstein and other scientists using bacteria. Now if you’re wondering if his works are dangerous, Zachary says that he’s got a process that actually kills the bacteria after the work is created, then preserves them inside of resin.

Now that he’s out of graduate school and doesn’t have access to the lab, Zachary has taken to Kickstarter seeking to raise enough money to continue his artwork.

He’s hoping to start his own exhibit in an actual art studio and wants to raise $8000 by April 24. By contributing to his project, you can get photographic copies of some of his petri dish artwork for pledges of $100(USD) and under. To own an actual petri dish artwork requires a pledge of $500, while larger Bacteriographs cost as much as $10,000.

Anyone who’s ever taken a microbiology class in college will have fond or more likely not so fond memories of growing disgusting bacteria and mold on various petri dishes. I always thought it was really cool that for many of the bacteria we worked with in college, whichever direction you smeared the culture onto the growth medium in your petri dish was typically how the bacteria would grow.

An artistic science geek called Zachary Copfer has figured out a way to make that little factoid work to his benefit by creating what he calls bacteriography. The artist came up with a way to grow photographs using a bacterial medium. The artist says that he invented a method to grow photographs using a bacteria and then came up with a way to preserve the petri dishes the bacteria making them safe to display and long-lasting.

The artist is trying to raise enough money to create and preserve his bacteriograph works to be featured in an actual exhibit and has turned to Kickstarter to raise enough money to create his artwork. As you see in the photograph, one of the bacteria prints the artist makes is the famous photograph of Einstein sticking out his tongue. If you like these cool bacteriographs, you can pledge money to get an photographic print of the bacteria art and if you pledge enough money can actually get one of the petri dishes.

To get an actual petri dish, you have to pledge $500 or more to get one of the small circular Einstein bacteriographs. A large square bacteriograph of Einstein that is numbered and signed and limited to only 10 prints will cost you five grand or more. The artist will even make a 9 x 9-inch bacteriograph of your own portrait for pledge of $10,000 or more.

[via Kickstarter]

Science geek creates photographs using bacterial growth is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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