1. Elena Amato is a designer that has chosen bacteria as her helpers for creating the packaging of her products! As a result, sustainable packaging free of plastic! ♻️🌍 

Nowadays, more and more designers are trying to create environmentally friendly products. One example is Elena Amato, a Guatemalan designer that has decided not to use plastic in her products. Her alternative: cellulose made by bacteria. The procedure consists of mixing bacteria, yeast culture and water and cover a flat surface with them. When the mix dries up, the result is very similar to paper! With a perfect texture for packaging! Besides, it is possible to dye it in different colours, allowing creative designs. Read more>

2. Beautiful and scary at the same time! Incredible video about how #bacteria evolve against #antibiotics 💊 

At Harvard University, researchers have recorded how E.coli develop resistance to antibiotics. They prepared a dish with different concentrations of antibiotics, from a single dose that usually kills E.coli to a 1000 times stronger one. Then, they introduced bacteria and wait to see what happened. The results were astonishing, the process is quicker than we could think. E.coli only needed 10 days to become resistant to the most strong antibiotic! Watch the whole video>

3. Your favourite sites, your pets, your friends, they have their personal #bacteria! Now, an artist has created lamps that preserve those bacteria!💡 Is it not beautiful? 

The uses of bacteria are very broad, they even have a place in art, just ask the artist Jan Klingler. He has created a sort of lamps that preserve the bacteria of your beloveds. We are talking about your pets, your friends, your families or even the places you more love. Everything is cover by bacteria! As this Swedish artist says, “every living being and place has its own microbial fingerprint”. His goal was to create a solid relationship between his creations and his future owner. Read more about his beautiful work>

4. Say cheese!!!🧀💓CHEEEESEEEEEE!!! Did you know how important #bacteria for cheese production are? What an #AwesomeMicrobes!

We are cheese lovers, and so we had to dedicate an #AwesomeMicrobes to those bacteria that make its production process possible. What would we do without bacterial fermentation?

 

5. It’s not easy to win #bacteria when it comes to survival strategies! They can slow down their whole metabolism!

It is known that bacteria can remain in a dormant state for long periods thanks to structures called spores. They totally stop their metabolism as a survival strategy to extreme conditions. Now a recent discovery has shown that bacteria can also enter an intermediate state between dormancy and activity. They are able to slow down their metabolism without stopping it completely. In this way, they can survive to stress situations at the same time that they continue dividing themselves. Researchers suggest that bacteria could be using this strategy to fight antibiotics. Read more>

6. What better way to celebrate St Patrick’s Day than with our #AgarArt challenge?! 🎨 #HappyStPatricksDay 🍀🍻

We keep going with the challenges for the agar artists, this is the one for March. We had to do it, bacteria also wanted to celebrate St Patrick’s Day!

 

7. These #bacteria may be traitors, but it’s good news for us! Researchers develop a new more efficient water filter built up by #bacteria!💧 

A recurrent issue in water filters is that their technology becomes less effective as bacteria start to colonise their surface. This could be over thanks to a new type of membrane built by bacteria! The main compound of this membrane is cellulose that the bacteria produce, and during the process, researchers add graphene that comes to form part of the membrane too. During the purifying process, this compound will react to the sunlight, heat up the membrane and kill the bacteria of the water. Discover more>

8. 1…wait, 2… wait, 3… wait, 4… wait, 5… NOW! Run #bacteria!⏳ Can we trust the “five seconds rule”?

We all have heard about the five seconds rule but how much truth lies within it? Scientists decided to test how fast bacteria are when transferring to the food and the results showed that it is not as easy as the famous rule. It depends a lot on the type of surface. For example, moist ailments are colonised by bacteria faster. One thing is clear, the more the food is in contact with the floor surface, the more bacteria will be on it, but there are other factors that influence the number of bacteria too. Read more>

9. Such heroes for the rest of the colony! Researchers have found another strategy of #bacteria against #antibiotics💊 They kill themselves for the greater good! 

When we look at how bacteria fight antibiotics, they keep surprising us! A recent study has discovered another of their strategies. When a colony is in contact with antibiotics, some of the members start to absorb large amounts of the drug. As a result, this will finally kill those members, but allow the rest to survive. So, it is like some bacteria were literally killing themselves for the greater good of the colony. This discovery could help scientists to develop new ways to fight them. Discover more>

10. What a better way to start the week that with our #SynbioQuiz!! What could it be? 👀 A…B…maybe C? The answer on Friday!🔬 #Synbio

And these are the results of our quiz! 8% Dyes your clothes 👚, 17% Cleans your fish tank 🐠 75% Bacteria are awesome, they can do both! 🙌 And the right answer was A!😱 We know the #SynbioQuiz of this month was a little bit tricky! Bacteria are awesome and they can also clean your fish tank! But we were asking about a type of Streptomyces… 😏

The world of fashion is big, and so is the impact that it has on the environment. Fortunately, little by little designers are looking for solutions to make their creations more sustainable. For example, some of them are experimenting with dyeing fabric with bacteria instead of chemicals. That’s the case of Streptomyces coleicolor, a bacterium that produces pigments of different colour depending on the pH of the medium where it grows. Thanks to synthetic biology, it is possible to program these bacteria to create a wide range of colours for clothing dyeing! Read more>