Scientists have created living photographs made of bacteria, genetically engineering the microbes so that a thin sheet of them growing in a dish can capture and display an image. Bacteria are not about to replace conventional photography because it takes at least two hours to produce a single image. But the feat shows the potential of an emerging field called synthetic biology, which involves designing living cellular machines much as electrical engineers might design a circuit. “We’re actually applying principles from engineering into designing cells,” said Christopher A. Voigt, assistant professor of pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco, and a leader of the photography project, which is described in a paper being published today in the journal Nature.
