Canon EOS 5D Camera
Carl Shultz (soft paper)
Huimin Zhao Laboratory
Funded by the DOE
Yeasts that can produce significant quantities of oil are promising candidates to use for production of biofuels and other useful chemicals, allowing for sustainable, environmentally friendly production of these compounds from biomass.
These images, crafted in the style of Hilma af Klint, compare a yeast that naturally produces the reddish pigment beta-carotene with its gene-edited cousin that has been modified to lose this capability. This work demonstrates the opportunity to guide and design the molecular activities of yeast. Like Klint’s use of geometrical shapes, these spheres of growth invite us to see a tiny universe of possibility and exploration in simple, everyday scientific objects.
