Revealing the value of microbial exploration.
Our Initiatives
Our diverse initiatives engage people with microbes in new ways. No project is too big, and no project is too small, so long as it is beneficial and impactful. Our projects are typically cross-initiative endeavors that incorporate our three focus areas: Microbial Research and Discovery, Microbial Education, and Microbial Art.
Microbial Education.
Our education initiatives use evidence-based practices to effect change. We build accessible tools that enable improved decision-making and enhance engagement. They are intended to enchant the senses and provoke curiosity.
Microbial Art.
Our art initiatives use creativity to aid the exploration process. They engage new audiences and provoke dialogues on how the fearful can be intimate, how the revolting can be beautiful, and how the abstract can be colorfully tangible.
Microbial Discovery.
Our discovery initiatives create new tools, new strategies, and new research to explore the microbial world and facilitate the development of new microbial applications. This work is motivated not just by a wish to harness this microbial technology as soon as possible, but to harness this power before it disappears forever.
Example Projects
Community of Microbes.
(Status: Past)
An art & science & augmented reality technology immersive exhibit (and app) to undertake a colorful microbial journey at the famous Cooper Union Gallary. . . and at home
Microbe Art + Microbe Education
Partners: Artist Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Purple Microbe Project.
(Status: Active)
Democratize microbial discovery and help save the world’s amphibians by finding antimicrobial-producing microbes in water near you in this participatory citizen science, education, & community art project
Microbe Discovery + Microbe Education + Microbe Art
Partners: Professor Brooke Jude, Bard College
The Global Lichen Hunt.
(Status: Active)
Engage with microbes in nature by photographing lichens across the globe using a choose-your-own-adventure style guide in this citizen science education project
Microbe Education + Microbe Art
Parnters: The Bell Musuem
Microbe Crayon Project.
(Status: Active)
Create whimsical education tools to reveal the beauty, natural pigments of microbes, and applications of microbes using crayons
Microbe Education + Microbe Art
Microbe Hat Project.
(Status: Active)
Use fashion and 3D printing to create evidence-based science communication tools and beautiful fashion statements
Microbe Education + Microbe Art
Wild Sourdough Project.
(Status: Past)
Make sourdough and help scientists learn about the microorganisms involved in some of our oldest technology as part of a global citizen science project
Microbe Education + Microbe Discovery
Partners: The Public Science Lab of North Carolina State University
Microbe Power Project.
(Status: Active)
Hack nature’s energy by creating an example of microbial power using low-cost supplies and equipment
Microbe Education + Microbe Art
MORE COMING SOON
Testimonials
“This fall I had to shift my undergrad Field Ecology course online, two weeks into the semester, in response to COVID-19. I quickly developed a series of labs linked to previously published research and/or ongoing citizen science efforts, so that students could practice a variety of field methods and compare data from their local environment to broader contexts. Thank goodness I found the Global Lichen Hunt! Your project page is filled with compelling images and background information to "hook" participants right away; and your additional resources on keeping a field notebook and extending the science of lichens not only enhanced my students' educational experience, but also got them excited about the many possible scientific careers they might pursue after graduation.”
— Professor Erin McKenney, Department of Applied Ecology, North Carolina State University, 2020
"As a component of the research grant from the National Science Foundation that partly funds my molecular biology lab, I run outreach programs targeting middle school students to cultivate engagement with science in general and microbiology specifically. These typically involve isolating wild yeast from the bark of trees. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut schools in the Spring of 2020, all these activities were canceled. Also canceled was an annual retreat for families with profoundly gifted children that I regularly attend. I recognized the explosion in home sourdough activity, found the Wild Sourdough Project, contacted members of the Microbe Institute, and with their help was able to put together within weeks a series of activities that allowed families to safely isolate yeast from their sourdough starters in their own kitchens and mail them to me for analysis. The project worked beautifully and will likely be the basis of my outreach programs in the near future.”
-Associate Professor Michael McMurray, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, 2020