Critically this only works for the bioengineered microbes that produce marker molecules that the hyperspectral cameras can identify. This doesn't work for random microbes out and about.

The title here and the first image in the article are annoyingly misleading.

The authors report being able to detect populations of many microbes that they genetically engineered to produce lots of detectable molecules and they sprayed in patches on top of the soil.

So this could be a valuable thing. But the damn article shows an aerial image inlaid with a microscope image with individual organisms resolved, which is very very far from what is reported here.

It’s science reporting. Science is cool already. There’s no need to give misleading hyperbolic impressions. Bah.