If you are in southern Spain, make sure you visit the exhibition of micrographs by Prof Franciso Torrella, which has now been extended to 27 April 2025. Prof Torrella is one of EBNet’s international advisers who kindly provided the activated sludge images for our #EnvBiotechAware week.
The exhibition, entitled La belleza en lo pequeño (‘the beauty in the small’) celebrates 50 years of the Facultad de Biología at the Universidad de Murcia, and features exquisite images of micro-organisms and related phenomena from his work. Many are directly relevant to environmental biotech, and all promote a sense of wonder in the diversity and fascinating complexity of the micro-world that surrounds us.
Prof Torrella did his PhD under Prof Ricardo Guerrero at the Autonomous Univ of Barcelona, and his post-doc in marine microbiology at Oregon State University under the late Prof Richard Y. Morita. This included ground-breaking work on the abundance of viruses in natural environments and on ultramicrobacteria.
We thank Prof Torrella for all his work, and very much hope he will produce a catalogue so that his images can be seen by researchers and by members of the public across the world.
Torrella, F. and R.Y.Morita.1979. “Evidence by electron micrographs for a high incidence of bacteriophage particles in the waters of Yaquina Bay,Oregon:Ecological and taxonomical implications”. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 37:774-778.
Torrella, F. and R.Y.Morita.1981. “Morphological study of bacterial size change, microcolony and ultramicrocolony formation by heterotrophic bacteria in seawater”. Appl.Environ.Microbiol. 41:518-527.