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This Is What the Bacteria Living on Your Money Look Like

You shouldn’t put money in your mouth, obviously, mainly because it has lots of gross stuff on it. We just can’t see it. That is, until Sorin Popescu, a 23-year-old pharmacy student from Romania, harvested some of the bacteria and created an art...

You shouldn’t put money in your mouth, obviously, mainly because it has lots of gross stuff on it. We just can’t see it. That is, until Sorin Popescu, a 23-year-old pharmacy student from Romania, harvested some of the bacteria and created an art project called “demonstrating the evil that money carries with it.” It’s called Life on Money, as in life on Mars, but also, I think, the idea of this is your life on money, with all of the infectiousness that implies. Our kissing cousins at Vice had a few questions.

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How did you go about making your project?

I harvested the bacteria off the money, then I incubated them, using special fluids in petri dishes and vials. You usually leave them for about 24 hours with most scientific studies, but I let my art evolve for much longer than that. They grew until they ate everything in the petri dishes, dehydrated, and died.

How long does bacteria survive on money?

Bacteria will usually only be carried by two or three people who have touched the money. Without any nutrition, they die out. The staphylococcus can last much longer without nourishment, though, so it’s likely to be more infectious than others.

Would someone get infected if they touched the money used in your experiment?

Yes, it was all infested. I discovered a load of different bacterias, like E. Coli, staphylococcus aureus, staphylococcus albus, neisseria, and enterococcus. They all cause diseases and infections of the bloodstream, the urinary tract, the genitals, and the lungs, even resulting in sepsis or meningitis. So they’re not very nice.

Read and see more at Vice.