Visitor Interactions in Microbiology

This project experiments with new exhibits that let visitors interact in real time with living microbes. Visitors’ drawings or silhouettes are projected in light onto a microscope slide. Photosensitive microbes there react to these micro-images. Simultaneously, this tiny scene is projected at human scale on an interactive screen where visitors draw or dance to alter the microbes’ behavior.   

This National Science Foundation-funded project is a partnership with bioengineers from the Riedel-Kruse Laboratory at Stanford University. It looks at:

• how biotechnology integrated into exhibits can allow real-time interaction with single-celled organisms.
• how this type of exhibit motivates visitors to investigate microbial life.
• how these exhibits promote interest in the underlying technology.

Project Leadership

Principal Investigator               Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, Stanford Bioengineering 

Co-Principal Investigator         Joyce Ma, Exploratorium 

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 1612831. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.