The invisible colony of bacteria that spreads its invisible biomass across a petri dish is as gestalt as any alien hive-mind. Like such a mind, it grows with design, and it is from this design that Eshel Ben-Jacob, an Israeli professor of physics, extracts both his science and art. Using what grows in his petri dish as raw material, Ben-Jacob’s Bacteria Art highlights not only the beautiful patterns of bacteria colonies, but their social intelligence as well. The result is trippy, evocative, and breathtaking, like MRIs of alien brains throbbing and lighting up as they sleep.