Every year the American Society of Microbiologists sponsors a contest in which scientists from across the world "paint" with microbes. These are this year's winners:

First place

Neurons, by Mehmet Berkmen of New England Biolabs, with artist Maria Penil, and painted with yellow Nesterenkonia, orange Deinococcus and Sphingomonas.

Second place

NYC Biome MAP, by Christine Marizzi. (Honestly, how did this not win first place?) "This was created as a collaboration between citizen scientists and artists at Genspace: New York City's Community Biolab," according to ASM,  and utilizes E.coli K12 bacteria and fluorescent proteins like GFP, RFP or YFP as paint.

Third place

Harvest Season, by Maria Eugenia Inda, a postdoctoral researcher from Argentina working at Cold Spring Harbor Labs, and painted with E.coli and yeasts.

People's choice

Cell to Cell, "with almost 3,500 likes on the American Society of Microbiology Facebook album," was painted with red Serratia, yellow Nesterenkonia, orange Deinococcus and Sphingomonas.  This was created by the same folks as the first place winner.

Click here to see the other entries in the competition.