This illustration depicts a three-dimensional (3D), computer-generated image of a group of anaerobic, spore-forming, Clostridium sp. organisms. The artistic recreation was based upon scanning electron microscopic (SEM) imagery. Note that a number of these organisms had assumed a safety-pin, or club-shape, indicating that they had entered what is known as an endospore phase, which is a tougher, dormant phase, resistant to heat and UV-radiation.