"Microbiology in space" was a theme that invited a wide (and large!) range of responses from across the galaxy. We received nearly 400 submissions this year, an all-time record! Some entries focused on how microbes from space have affected life on Earth. Some entries sent us through the solar system and beyond to the end of the universe.

All were creative and beautiful, but only a few could be chosen as the best. Check out the winners below, and find links to all entries at the bottom of each section.

• Winners- Professional Category.
• Winners- Creator Category.
• Winners- Open Category.
• Winners- Kids Category.

Unfortunately, due to irregularities in voting, we have decided to not award the People's Choice prizes this year.

Microbes Grown on Agar by Participants Who Have Access to, and Created Their Work in, a Formal Laboratory Setting Like a University or Industrial Lab.

1st Place (Overall Winner)

Alien Medley

One of the tantalizing questions of outer space is, “What would aliens look like?” They could be single-celled. They could be multi-cellular! There is no shortage of speculation in books and films, with only our imagination as the limit. The aliens depicted here are inspired by the “Yip Yip” aliens of Sesame Street and the little green men from the vending machine in the movie Toy Story. The bacteria used is Klebsiella pneumonia, a relative of E. coli that secretes a slimy capsule. Both capsulated and non-capsulated variants of K. pneumoniae were used to draw the aliens. The eyes are disks used for antibiotic susceptibility testing (with permanent marker pupils), and the colors of the agar are different indicator dyes from around the lab. Most of the dyes change color depending on the pH, but 1 of dyes (Resazurin) changes color in the presence of oxygen. If we were to meet aliens (and their microbiota), I hope they are as friendly and expressive as the ones drawn here.


 

 

 

2nd Place

Agarnaut

This astronaut 'Agarnaut' is looking through his microscope, looking for rare microorganisms that he can bring back home.  On the small petri dishes are the constellations (from bottom to top) the Big Dipper, Cassiopeia, Orion and Scorpio. The bacteria that were used are genetically engineered E. coli K12. The DNA to engineer it to be colorful is derived from sea anemones. The cultures also fluoresce when illuminated with ultraviolet light.

 

 

 

3rd Place

Microbial Perseverance

Mars 2020 is an ongoing NASA mission that explores the red planet for signs of past microbial life and also conducts tests in preparation for future crewed missions. To this end, the Perseverance rover—along with the Ingenuity drone—was sent to perform tasks, such as collecting soil samples and testing oxygen production from the Martian atmosphere. Our work portrays Perseverance, Ingenuity and the mission name, using 2 different bacteria isolated from the Atacama Desert (Chile), the most Mars-like place on Earth. The plates were made by exposing freshly inoculated bacterial lawns to germicidal UV light through stencils, in order to restrict the microbial proliferation to covered areas only. However, even though they were exposed for about 10X the time needed to kill Escherichia coli, some colonies still grew in the uncovered areas, evidencing how UV-resistant desert bacteria can be. Each plate image was cut out from an individual photograph to form this 3-image montage. The stencils are based on images by NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Microbes Grown on Agar by Participants Who Created Their Work in an Informal Setting, Something Like a Community Lab or Maker Space.

1st Place

A Cosmic Journey of Yeast Cells.

Imagine yeast, those remarkable microorganisms that bring life to our bread, beer and wine. Now, envision them embarking on a unique adventure beyond the confines of our planet. This is the captivating story that my Agar Art piece portrays—the incredible journey of yeast cells in the cosmos. In the vast expanse of space, scientists launched a small satellite called BioSentinel to explore how yeast cells respond to the rigors of space radiation and its effects on DNA repair mechanisms. My artwork depicts this extraordinary voyage. At its core, you'll find BioSentinel, a CubeSat adorned with solar panels, carrying the yeast cells into the great unknown. The spacecraft is surrounded by beautiful stars radiating different colours, symbolizing the vastness and beauty of space. To the left, I’ve also tried to depict the Moon to mimic deep space where this yeast carrying satellite will travel and unearth the potential of a living form to withstand space radiations.  

This art piece not only celebrates the inquisitiveness of scientists who thought out of the box and sent yeast into the cosmos, but also prompts us to contemplate that, in the vastness of space, all life forms, no matter how small, have their place and can journey into the stars. It's a reminder of the boundless marvels of science and the incredible adventures that even the simplest life forms can embark upon.

 

 

2nd Place

Shapeship Flying Through the Stars

Spaceship flying through the stars. The medium used was tryptone soy agar and it was incubated at 21°C. The spaceship was made using Staphylococcus aureus, and the flame was made using Serratia marcescens. The stars were made using Pseudomonas auroginosa. The plate is shown illuminated with UV light.

 

 

3rd Place

The Birth of a Star

Somewhere in the universe, a new star has been born. We may learn about it tomorrow, or it could be a million years from now. The paths of stars and our lives intersect. Just contemplating it fills the heart with wonder. I expressed the blessing of the birth of a new star and its surging energy in blue produced by Candida tropicalis.
 

Entries That Used Any Type of Media (Video, Poem, Painting, Sculpture, etc.).

1st Place

Irradiating Microbes

This piece, titled "Irradiating Microbes," encapsulates some of the effects of extreme environmental factors in space, such as solar UV radiation, vacuum and varying temperatures. These bacteria affected by radiation can also illuminate our world. The idea for this piece was inspired by my love for vibrancy and waves—simple, dynamic lines just like the ocean's calm waves. It was created on a 16" x 20" cotton stretch canvas using acrylic paint, markers and gold leaf. The use of cold colors in the background represents the low temperatures and various wavelengths of radiation affecting these bacteria, not just the vivid colors of outer space.  The rest of the piece focuses on the ethereal presence of these organisms. Studies conducted by NASA, the University of Southern California, Cornell University and the University of Hyderabad have reported that certain bacteria, such as Deinococcus, E. coli, Salmonella Typhimurium and the recently discovered bacteria, Methylobacterium ajmalii, that have been presented in the painting, show increased growth (about twice the growth) in space as compared to their growth on Earth. It has also been reported that the inner cells in clusters of Deinococcus can survive, although they suffer irreparable DNA damage, as represented in the piece by the unusual DNA code. Research also suggests that the impact of bacterial cell behavior in gravity could be exploited for the production of pharmaceutical compounds and vaccines, making them little 'golden' organisms of our future.

 

   

2nd Place

Space Traveling Microbes; Architects of Life

Microbes in space might sound surprising, but they play a big part in the story of life on Earth. Billions of years ago, these tiny adventurers hitched rides on space rocks, landing here and becoming the pioneers of life. Settling in oceans and soil, these microbes started the incredible journey of life, evolving and shaping the diverse forms we see today. They are like the original architects of life, turning a young, barren planet into a thriving home for countless organisms. So, when we think about the origins of life on Earth, we owe a big thank you to these space-traveling microbes! To create this piece of agar art, first, we filled a 6 cm Petri dish with Simmons citrate culture medium and placed it in the center of a 15 cm Petri dish. Then, we filled the larger Petri dish with Eosin methylene blue culture medium. We used Klebsiella pneumonia for the Earth and Escherichia coli for DNA. K. pneumonia uses citrate and turns the green color of Simmons citrate into blue. E. coli colonies grow with a metallic sheen with a dark center on EMB.
 

 

 

3rd Place

Space Colonization

This digital collage was inspired by the amazing ability of microorganisms to adapt to extreme conditions (extremely cold or hot, acidic or basic, salty or high-pressure environments) that would be lethal for more complex organisms. Although life in space (without protection from radiation, extreme temperatures and even the vacuum itself) seems unlikely, it has been found that some microorganisms can survive in these hostile conditions, acting collectively. Each Petri dish represents a microscopic universe, displaying diversity and beauty in the smallest life forms, just as the solar system displays majesty and wonder in the immensity of the cosmos.

Entries From Our Junior Microbiologists, Aged 12 and Under.

1st Place

The Rocket Bear

My piece represents a tardigrade outside of a rocket ship. One thing I find interesting about this topic is that tardigrades can live in any environment. The bacteria that I used to create my art is Sarcina aurantiaca. The thing I used to apply the bacteria to the agar was a little circle. It took 1 day for the agar to start growing.

 

 

2nd Place (tie)

One Small Step for Tardigrades!

My piece shows happy tardigrades landing on the moon. I find the topic of tardigrades on the moon very interesting. It makes me wonder if there are tardigrades living on other planets, like Mars or Saturn. For my agar art, I used a bacteria called the Sarcina aurantiaca. I used a plastic tool with a little ring shape on the bottom. I took the tool, and I dipped it into the tube filled with bacteria. I left it on the plate for a day, and in the morning the bacteria grew perfectly on the plate.

 

 

2nd Place (tie)

Playing in the Space

This picture is about a cat with her children playing in the space. But they saw an UFO. The 2 little cats are very happy because they saw the UFO, so their mom take a photo that UFO in the beautiful space.

We also had 23 miscellanous entries this year. Check them out on our Flickr page.

To request copyright permission to republish or otherwise use Agar Art images, please visit Copyright Clearance Center’s (CCC) Marketplace website. You will be contacted by an ASM representative once your request has been received.

Adriana Celis Ramirez
Allison Granberry
André Barbet
Andrés E. Marcoleta
Ashley Hagen
Balaram Khamari
Basanti Dalai
Camilo Berríos-Pastén
Christine Marizzi
Daniel Pham
David Rangel Castro
Diane Flayhart
Didem Rodoplu
Fiza Sikandar
Frank Tran
Girish Mahajan
Jasmine Temple
Joanne Dungo

Joanne Touchberry
Joaquín Acosta
Juan Carlos Elizalde
Judy Nguyen
Kim Xiong
Kosar Ali
Kristen Engevik
Linta Khalid
Lynda Carter
Maria Inda
Laura Echarren
Maria Penil
Marianne Michel
Mary Marinaro
Martyna Pietrzak
Mike Taveirne
Mireya Duran

Mohamadiya Rizwana
Natascha Varona
Norbert Hopf
Riley Cutler
Sarah Adkins-Jablonsky
Shanmuga Priya
Sonja Borndörfer
Valeri Sáenz Moncaleano
Zahir Islam
Ariana Gestal-Gurr
Aziliz C Pernet
Casey Harelik
Ethan Lin
Kate Lin
Manal Faisal Khan
Xinyu Lin