The Art of Science
Posted: Friday, 27th April 2012
LOOKS beautiful, doesn’t it?
But this is no delicate sea anemone, it’s a harmful micro-organism which is the scourge of dentists everywhere!
A mix of candida ablicarns and streptococcus oralis, this biofilm forms a fungus which causes oral infection.
The image is by Sarah Jackson who grew the biofilm on an acrylic surface to investigate the efficacy of denture cleansers as part of her PhD in oral microbiology.
“What you can see is the residual biofilm that formed at the interface between the air and the liquid growth medium,” she explains. “When the two organisms are grown together the biofilm appears in this wrinkly skin format.”
Art of Science
Sarah's is one of the winning images from this year’s ‘Art of Science’ photography competition held at last Friday’s Research and Development Day in John Dalton.
The overall winner was Angelique Dudman, 25, a PhD Health Science student for her ‘heart shaped’ image in a laboratory dish.
Sarah was 2nd, with David Wickens, also PhD Healthcare Science in third for his image of bacterial patterns on a culture.
Sarah, who organised the competition, with research degree administrator Rita Kenny said the competition was an excellent way of bringing postgraduate scientists together.
Fantastic
“The entries we have had this year have been fantastic, we’ve had excellent feedback from the judges. When I leave I will be passing the competition over to the next postgraduate and hopefully the competition will continue to develop and be a success in years to come.”
The judges were research and enterprise development manager Sam Gray and Dean of Faculty Professor Pete Dunleavy.
For more of the photograph's see http://www.flickr.com/photos/60787302@N08/