Scientists at the University of Liverpool have made an unusual contribution to Liverpool's bid to become the European capital of culture in 2008. They have grown the city's liver bird logo from cultured bacteria in a Petri dish.
Sarah Stamper of MerseyBio, which seeks to create new life-sciences businesses for the region, said: "I was sitting in the pub thinking how all this history and innovation could fit in with the bid, and I just struck on the idea of using culture in the scientific way. I'd seen the logo and thought it would be cool to culture that. I got a beer mat, did a rough draft, took it back to the lab and - Eureka! It worked."