How to get a physarum culture

[ian]

So you want slime? 

I can give you slime. I'll post physarum to anyone anywhere free of charge. 

"Free?" you say, surely that's too good to be true? 

Indeed it is, I said free of charge, not actually free. This is the slime mould collective, lone oat flakes do not get visited by physarum fairy. You must prove your worth if you want to join and engage with the network. Assimilation doesn't hurt, we promise and you might like it. 

Tell us why you want the slime, what are your hopes and fears for slimekind? Where do you you see your slime in five years time?

A paragraph, a short story, maybe a few lines of verse, how about an expressive dance? We don't mind we just want you to communicate.

In return we will let you have your very own slime sent discreetly in a plain envelope - your friends and family need never know! 

[Katie]

So I am humbling requesting to be allowed to open my home to receive Joey and Chandler (et al.) Slime Moulds please. They will be well loved and cared for.

[Ben Gruver]

Hi Ian! If you have some available and get a chance, I'd love to get some Physarum from you. I want to try to culture/propagate it and use it as food for some springtails that seem to be very picky eaters, but who have expressed an interest in another small, unknown slime mold that I've been working with.

[Tom Smith]

I am of course brand new to P. Polycephalum and have A LOT to learn. I began my steps in this pursuit by some Slime from Carolina, after a suggestion from my nephew. We are looking to solve a maze and maybe replicate the Tokyo pattern. But I myself am curious to see what the slime is capable of as a single celled specimen. EG. how far can it be conditioned to learn, how quickly it adapts to challenge, and quite possibly how it does as an algorithm for decision making. 

I have already got things going, with an unexpected amount of bumps, but just picked up an early grasp of interacting with the Slime. I saw the Slime detach from a new food source (possibly via confusion?) and form a "Glider" like pattern as referred to in Conway's Game of Life (https://playgameoflife.com/). In addition, its "pulse" is impressive under scope; such an amazing thing to see a Single Celled Organism form and maintain a smart structure via oscillating pulse. The organism is quite impressive and (in my beliefs/perception) a humbling point of just how little we know about this World and what good structural design is.

I have been looking around the website and found a lot of really interesting and useful information from all of you.
Ian, you run a good show. Your Manifesto guided me to a problem I had with my bed keeping the paper too wet. Simple is always better. 

I look forward to what I will learn with this pursuit and possibly what I may share.

Thank you.

[Ray]

Hello Ian.

My friend recommended me to you, after getting slime from you in the past 🙂
I've seen springtails eat it, which I'm particularly interested in, but also I've become fascinated by it and would love to grow some myself. I'd love to try any you can offer. My friend told me to ask for the "daywalker variant". Thank you very much and looking forward to hearing from you while I read your site 🙂👍🏼

[Erica]

Hello!  I have grown slime mold with my students that came from Carolina Biological and they were fascinated!  I tried to keep the strain going afterward but was only able to maintain it for about 2 months before it gave up which is the experience that many instructors that I have spoken with have run into. I would love to be able to maintain my own colony and share my love of this group of organisms with my college students for many years to come.  It is a little difficult to do my interpretive dance here but here is a haiku:

Slimy and yellow

One big intelligent cell

Finding oats to eat

[Isaac Hoyt]

Hi Ian! 

I'm a huge fan of slime molds and particularly physarum polycephalum. This actually wouldn't be my first physarum, as up until recently I had one of my own named Blobert. I ordered him online from an Etsy seller in France, and I really enjoyed keeping and growing him in multiple containers and on a variety of mediums. My journey with blobert ended when I left his container outside in the sun to sporulate and I couldn't recover any sclerotium as I had before. This time around I hope to 3d print a maze for my slime to solve, which is something I have always wanted to do but haven't done yet. I think it would be a ton of fun to 3d print and design some more complicated structures and terrain to put in his enclosure.

Please let me know if you'd like to talk more and if you're able to send me a new slime (and if you have any naming suggestions because otherwise I will be going with blobert 2.0),

Isaac

[Monika Fröhlich]

Hi Ian,

I am a teacher at a Gymnasium in Germany and I already had a slime mould culture some years ago. I got it from a fantastic colleague, a teacher from the Netherlands. Unfortunately, I failed to grow a sklerotium that I could recover after a while.

I would like to to do some food seeking experiments, setting up networks with oat flakes, do time lapse videos and let the students set up their own research questions and experiments.

Is there a possibility to get get some slime from you?

Best regards

Monika

[fred]

Hey Ian,

I would love to get a slime if you're still sending them out! I've been interested in them for a while and I'd love to have my own pet slime. I'm excited to make some mazes or set up experiments. And just have it around as a muse when writing my story that's inspired by slime molds. I'm also planning to get a microscope soon and would love to look at the slime mold under it. 

Thanks!!

[Amanda Karch]

Hi Ian, I discovered your site after listening to an episode of Stuff You Should Know, and became instantly enthralled.  I live in New Hampshire and spend a lot of time outdoors examining all of the fungal species that grow in our area.  My 5 year old son has become obsessed with fungus and I think he will love slime molds even more!  Maybe it could become his first pet.  (Is it a pet...or an experiment...or maybe both???) 

[Adrian Evans]

Hi!

Just thought to introduce myself to the community in this thread as a way of introduction.

My background amongst other things is primarily a horticulturist, landscape designer gardening journalist and columnist, amateur mycologist and lots of green things in between. I currently work as head of research and development for a company here in Finland, whereby we are developing Nature Based Solutions and products addressing the issues of climate change - outdoor green wall solutions that collect and clean stormwater, noise attenuating solutions for town and cities, as well as incorporating such solutions with street furniture and other city infrastructure in cooling the urban heat island effect.

I'm a complete soil fanatic, which is something I have spent a lifetime studying for the complete richness of life that it contains. It has lead me through the mycorrhizal trail in feeding the soil with only organic matter without the need to cultivate, adding any artificial fertilizers, and definitely no chemicals. To this day, I have never seen anybody digging in the well formed forest, neither scattering NPK, nor spraying against weeds (wild plants), pests, diseases or disorders, so why should it be different on any other land when nature takes care of it all!

I just came across the slime mold collective yesterday having read some blog postings by Katie Losey on the Biomimicry Institute's web pages (as seen on their latest emailed newsletter). All in all I'm here to learn a lot more about Slime mold and its applications for the fascinating creature that it truly is. 

Thanks for allowing me to join the group!

[Susan Dexter]

Ian

I am new to slime but am fascinated by their behavior and apparent "intelligence". I am currently reading Neil Theise's "Notes on Complexity: A Scientific Theory of Connection, Consciousness, and Being", which explores the unpredictable patterns of self-organization by "complex" systems.  I would like to observe a "community" of Physarum to see how self organization manifests among these single celled organisms.

As we have online sports betting in Maine, I'm also considering allowing slime to engage in competitive sports with high stakes gambling a possible means it can finance the oat purchases. Slime roulette is another thought.  If you know of others who have already tried these activities, please send links...no need to reinvent the slime roulette wheel.

Any slime would live a healthy life in my home...clean air (no smoke or chemical fumes); pure (tested) well water; only organic oats; and it would never be abandoned....would accompany me on my travels.

As for where my slime will be in five years?  That's a bit far to think, given the perilous state of our world.  Assuming we all survive, the slime might be an expat with me, if things go badly here. Otherwise, perhaps an extended family will have oozed among my friends.

If you can send a culture, let me know and I will provide you with my mailing address.  Thanks for your consideration.

Susan

[Don Recardo]

It said to get a start up from you I need to say why I think you should send one to me .

1] I discovered slime molds a week ago by accident on you tube I watched the video and was hooked , I watched more , I read anything I could find, I tried to join your forum so I can find out more . I have watched so I know it happens , but its still hard to believe something without a brain can show intelligence . I want to find out more by experimenting, can it sense heat and cold , move towards or away from it , Does it react to gravity ? If I put a filter paper with a plasmodium on it and rotate it slowly so it doesnt know which way is up will it move differently than keeping it in the same orientation. Also I have owned a microscope for many years , It would give me something new to look at

You said I could send a verse instead or an Expressive dance ( but I cant sance at my age (75) ) so here is a verse for you

2] A VERSE FROM A CLEVER BALL OF YELLOW SNOT
-----------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------

With silent grace, in clusters tight
Navigating through the endless night
Our life flows slow, yet never still
Across the forest, over hill
With every move, we leave a trace
In search for food, in silent chase
While moving through soil, slow and grand
Tracing paths in a world so bland
Forgive my kin they move alone
In search of life a place unknown
In unseen threads, we intertwine
Connecting lands, a hidden sign
With every path, a story grows
In the shadows, where belief flows
Through decay, we find our way
A silent dance, where we will stay
From fallen leaves to pine-scented ground
We find our way, without a sound
In unity, we form our thread
Life's simple marvel, where we're led
In ancient dance, we intertwine
Moving as one, through space and time

Well thats two reasons to get me started raising snot
but if thats not enough

3]
It was my 75th Birthday 5 days ago ( 13th July) and you
never sent me a card. A starter sample of Physarum would
make up for it . :-)

4]
After reading your offer of Free samples , I ordered 10 x 90mm Petri dishes , a box of filterpapers and tape to keep the lids on , It all arrived this morning from AMAZON . Everything looks great but its SO boring looking at a petri dish thats empty

Last ditch attempt.
-------------------

5] I read some where you are from Birmingham , I too am an Ex Brummie I was born in the city center and lived there
till I was seven , then Northfield B31 till I was 20 . Im now quite close in Redditch so if you could send some from one brummie to another that would be Bostin

Cheers
Don