{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.024665981500513873, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.903030303030303, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
The many modes of microbial magic

A new kind of artists’ colony You may have heard of living painting pageants, where people in costume recreate famous works of art. But have you heard about living paint? Petri Dish Picasso is a Canada-based, student-run society dedicated to educating the public about microbiology and genetically modified organisms through the magic of petri dish art. The group, comprising mostly graduate students at local universities, brings its painting supplies and microbial expertise to local outreach events and groups, such as the Calgary Boys and Girls Club. Petri Dish Picasso formed to address some common misconceptions about the dangers of microbes, according to Courtney Toth, who helps run the group. “There’s lots of examples of good microbes out there,” she tells Newscripts. “They’re just not the ones that we talk about all the time.” The paints that the group uses are strains of Escherichia coli bacteria cloned with variants of a