A Krasnoyarsk doctor raised a dragon in a Petri dish and won the “Beauty of the Microworld 2023” competition (3 photos)

She immediately took first place - and for good reason.





“Beauty of the Microworld 2023” is a competition among microbiologists. They sow certain crops in a special environment, and when they germinate, they create absolutely fantastic pictures. This is how specialists show their skills and creative potential.

This year the theme of the competition was “Fairy-tale and mystical microworld”. The first place in it was taken by Anastasia Tereshenko, a bacteriologist from Krasnoyarsk.



First place work

As the winner said:

“It takes me one to two days to complete one painting. A Petri dish with certain microorganisms is placed in a thermostat at 37 degrees. Different bacteria give different color shades. I used three types of microorganisms in my work:

Escherichia coli produces a purple color.

Acinetobacter baumannii can cause pneumonia, sepsis and other infections, and can serve as white paint.

Fecal enterococcus (Enterococcus faecalis), which is part of the normal microflora of the human digestive tract, but can be the causative agent of various infections - blue paint. The picture was made on chromogenic agar, which is commonly used for the detection and enumeration of uropathogenic bacteria (HiCrome UTI Agar)."



Anastasia Tereshenko

The nutrient medium is like a canvas, and bacteria instead of paints. According to Anastasia:

“Creativity is my outlet, a hobby. And work is my favorite thing.”