A group of British students led by Dr Simon Park, have produced a distatsteful series of art prints that record the growth of bacteria on cell phones. Yes, they “paint” with bacteria. They call it “bioart.”

The images were made when the students placed cell phones petri dishes, and left them for three days. The growth patterns of the bacteria in the petri dishes are slightly unnerving, but not as scary as the varieties of bacteria that were found. Park had this to say:

From these results, it seems that the mobile phone doesn’t just remember telephone numbers, but also harbours a history of our personal and physical contacts such as other people, soil, etc.

Although most of the bacteria on the cellphones are harmless, there is one, rogue staph – which causes boils, sinusitis and food poisoning – which also calls the cellphone home. Yay!

Just in case these pictures don’t gross you out enough, “one in six phones have traces of E. coli bacteria from fecal matter.”

[Source: Wired]