Really cool: 3D printed microbes for the visually impaired

Image from Nanowerk story.

This is one of the most interesting things I have seen relating to microbiology recently:  3D printed giant germs help visually impaired see the world of microorganisms reported by Nanowork News on October 31.  This work has done by researchers from the BBSRC (the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in the UK) who hosted an event called “Giant Germs” for the blind and visually impaired.  In discussing various microbes (alas, the story implies that all they discussed were pathogens), they had accompanying tactile sessions to feel the structures of the microbes.  Just a really brilliant, important idea.

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This is from the “Tree of Life Blog”
of Jonathan Eisen, an evolutionary biologist and Open Access advocate
at the University of California, Davis. For short updates, follow me on Twitter.

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Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis

One thought on “Really cool: 3D printed microbes for the visually impaired”

  1. To bad they're not linking to the actual stl models, so anyone with access to a 3d printer can print out their own – doh! And they were *so* close to doing it right.

    Apparently, you'll be able to “borrow” the physical models. So last century…

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