Mario, recreated out of glowing bacteria
Yes, that is Nintendo’s iconic mascot, recreated in a petri dish out of magical glowing bacteria. This piece of biological retro nonsense was created by researchers from the University of Osaka, who genetically manipulated the bacteria to radiate fluorescent proteins and carotenoid pigments, which are science words that I don’t want to understand.
Science we may not know, but we do know silly gimmicky videogame references, and that’s certainly what this is. Yes, these scientists could be curing cancer instead of doing this, but if I had to choose between a world free of disease or a world free of glowing bacteria Marios, I’m afraid all those little bald kids are on their own.
