Steve Kurtz’s artworks look more like science projects than museum pieces. They offer social commentary along with objects such as corn plants and bacteria-filled petri dishes. “It’s not pictures on the wall,” said Adele Henderson, head of the art department at the University at Buffalo, where Kurtz teaches. And it’s certainly not terrorism, the artist’s friends say. Last month, agents from the Joint Terrorism Task Force cordoned off and searched Kurtz’s house after police who been called to his home to investigate his wife’s death became alarmed when they found biological materials. Kurtz maintains the material was for his art. But the stuff police found — one of Kurtz’s colleagues said it included lab equipment used for DNA extraction and amplification, as well as three types of bacteria — was enough to trigger fears of bioterrorism. Full Story