CAMBRIDGE, MASS. - A new exhibit on microbes is on view at Harvard Museum of Natural History, thanks to efforts from Newtown native Dr Scott Chimileski and others.Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World, published in 2017.hmnh.harvard.edu) describes the new exhibit as "a multimedia journey into this fascinating, invisible realm, where bacteria and other microbes bustle about their lives, interacting with one another and with organisms of all sizes in every corner of the globe."More information about Dr Chimileski's work and Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World is available on his website scottchimileskiphotography.com for full details.. Harvard Museum of Natural History is at 26 Oxford Street in Cambridge, Mass. Readers who find themselves in the area and are interested in visiting can call 617-495-3045 or visit hmnh.harvard.edu

Dr Chimileski and Dr Roberto Kolter worked together as two of the guest curators for the new "Microbial Life: A Universe at the Edge of Sight." According to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, Dr Kolter is the director of Harvard University's Microbial Sciences Initiative and a professor emeritus in Harvard Medical School's Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Dr Chimileski - who graduated from Newtown High School in 2002 before studying at the University of Connecticut, Storrs - is a microbiologist and science photographer for the Kolter and Baym Labs at Harvard Medical School.

This is the second exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History that Dr Chimileski and Dr Kolter worked together on as curators. "World in a Drop: Photographic Explorations of Microbial Life" was on view through January 7 of this year. The museum described that exhibit as "an aesthetic journey into the microbial world using expertly executed photography, videography, and poetic narration by Harvard scientists [Dr Chimileski] and [Dr Kolter], who capture the intrinsic beauty of a mysterious world that is seldom recognized."

The pair also authored the book

The new exhibit opened on February 17 and it is on view through September 2019. The museum's website (

Dr Chimileski said the new exhibit was "a lot of fun" to work on. Part of the Microbial Life exhibit is a volunteer station, where a rotating team of 50 local microbiologists volunteer to spend two-hour shifts speaking with visitors.

"People can talk to a real microbiologist," said Dr Chimileski.

Part of the motivation behind the new exhibit is to spur a movement to bring more exhibits about microbes to all natural history museums.

"It hasn't been traditional that there are microbes in natural history museums," Dr Chimileski explained, adding that most museums were built or first designed in a period when there was a different understanding of the world. There are only a few exhibits like the one at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, he continued later, "and we hope that won't be the case in the future."

Some of the photographs from the duo's previous exhibition are still on view within the new exhibit. Dr Chimileski said he likes visiting the museum and seeing people interact with the different stations.

The effort to create the new exhibit began in 2014, when Dr Kolter and Dr Chimileski began conceiving of the idea and planning for the exhibit. They first approached the museum in 2015.

The live demonstrations are a good reason for people to visit the museum, and the rest of the museum is interesting and worth a trip from Newtown to Boston, he added.

According to the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the exhibit offers a full-scale model of a kitchen, live colonies of soil bacteria that help sustain terrestrial environments, and live demonstrations. Live demonstrations run Saturdays and Sundays every half hour from 10 am to noon and again from 2 to 4 pm.