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! 

[ian]

HI there, you ask some great questions - I've moved it over to it's own thread

[Ines]

Hi Ian, I would love it if I could get physarum! My kids and I watched a TED talk on it and now my 7 year old would like one as a pet (he chose it over ferrets and lizards;). He is excited to experiment and see what it can do. I can’t seem to find a way to order one in Canada- you need to be part of an educational institution - so anything you can do to help would be wonderful! Thanks!

[Robbie Rae]

Hi Ian,

Until recently I didn’t know much about slime moulds but after reading about them, wow! They’re fascinating. I’m a biology lecturer and really have to tell my students about them. I’d also really like to carry out some lab practicals to get the students interested in them. If you could send me some P. polycephalum that would be a massive help.

Many thanks,

Robbie

[George Winston Frees]

I saw this post and immediately made an account. I was so excited when I found this site that I spent several hours reading through posts!

I am currently in a medical sciences/ laboratory research program and I have become immensely fascinated by slime molds in the past few weeks both as a matter of personal interest, and as a source of medical innovation; after many years of casual fascination in these strange life forms. I also find them an inspiration for unique art. As such, I hope to conduct a wide array of experiments upon as many species of slime molds as I can get, and I'll happily share all the information I obtain with any who are interested!!!

It is my hope that through the use of slime mold and by studying their ability to form plasmodia, and pseudo plasmodia, that we may innovate techniques of large-scale tissue regeneration. As well as possible applications in nanotechnology.

First things first, I will need some slime molds upon which to experiment. Due to the variance in behavior between species, I wish to be able to experiment upon as many species and varieties as possible. I understand that this is asking a lot, but if you would see fit to send me samples of as many species as you can, I will do my utmost to make sure that they are well cared for, that they contribute to valuable research, and that you are credited properly if and when I publish my research. At the least, I would need a sample of Myxogastria (plasmodial), Dictyostellida (cellular), and Protostelloids (amoeboid) slime molds in order to study the processes that I need to. If you or any others here have access to these, I would be eternally grateful if you would share! Due to the demanding nature of this request, I would be willing to pay a bit in order to expand the number of species I can obtain, but I am working with very limited funds.

I currently have access to a rather extensively equipped microbiological lab, and as such, I can assure that all samples (our slime mold companions) will be properly cared for and contained. Additionally, I would be able and willing to pass these samples along to others, and I have the equipment to culture axenic samples, and store them long-term.

So, if anyone sees this, and you have a unique species of slime mold to share, I will make the best use of it that I can if you would be willing to share!! 

Thank you,

George 

[Paul]

Tell us about the art!

[Fred Bartlett]

Hi, I'm a teacher on a tight budget and love to let my 8th graders grow their own cultures and try some experiments. I'd love to get a culture from you, as I don't have any viable ones left. I'm also happy to pay for postage should you like. So I guess I need to something special to be worthy, eh? OK, I'll try a poem:

ODE TO A POLYCEPHALUM

How I love thee, polycephalum: you run mazes, you sure aren't dumb.

So big, but only one cell. How do you do it? What the hell?

My students take good notes: They know you're fond of rolled oats.

Is this poem good enough to get some slime? Even better when it doesn't cost a dime.

Let me know if your offer still stands! Thanx :-)

[Lucas]

Hello from Brazil!
I'm a photographer and video producer and I've been interested in fungi (which I know Physarum is not) for some years. As a great fan of cooking with mushrooms first I tried with edible ones, then moved on to more exotic ones lilke the bioluminiscent Panellus stipticus and the elusive Mycena clorophos. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to make any photographic experience with them for several reasons. I have also tried to grow lichens with very little success.

Some time ago, I've stumbled upon a YouTube video talking about the Physarum polycephalum and I was simply amazed with it and its odd properties and behaviour. Researching a bit about it, I've came accross this website and thought that it would be a dope idea to grow my own culture and make some photographic experiences with it, particularly with time lapse photography.
So, here I am, trying to discover how to get my own sample of this amazing lifeform!

[Lucas]

Hello from Brazil!
I'm a photographer and video producer and I've been interested in fungi (which I know Physarum is not) for some years. As a great fan of cooking with mushrooms first I tried with edible ones, then moved on to more exotic ones lilke the bioluminiscent Panellus stipticus and the elusive Mycena clorophos. Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to make any photographic experience with them for several reasons. I have also tried to grow lichens with very little success.

Some time ago, I've stumbled upon a YouTube video talking about the Physarum polycephalum and I was simply amazed with it and its odd properties and behaviour. Researching a bit about it, I've came accross this website and thought that it would be a dope idea to grow my own culture and make some photographic experiences with it, particularly with time lapse photography.
So, here I am, trying to discover how to get my own sample of this amazing lifeform!

[Katherine]

Hi, I'm an artist now in Milan, I'm preparing an art work and slime molds is my basic material.

As a research tool of artificial intelligence, slime molds have many potentialities. I want to use it to simulate the information exchange of gut. Maybe I will test the influence of some bacteria on slime molds. Eventually I will build gut as the prototype of alternative life, but I need a lot of experimentation. Now the information I learn most comes from the Internet, obviously I need more practical operations to understand the performance of slime molds.

Hope to get it as soon as possible, the experiment process is urgent. I'm in Milan, it's hard to get slime molds in Europe (also because covid19 situation) so....Hope I can hear from you before Christmas. Of course we can keep in touch and see the final art piece.

[Amber]

Hi Ian, I have been interested in slime mould for years but thanks to lockdown I'm finally in the position to start my own culture and be around to see the results. I'm interested in it's intelligence, it's ability to learn and remember. I want to see how far it's problem solving abilities go. I want to understand it's decision making, why it takes the risks it does when it's becoming habituated to substances that could harm it. How far it's willing to push itself in order to attain food, and if multiple slimes taken from the same original slime take the same amount of time to habituate or if some are more stubborn and refuse to adapt. This is just the beginning of what I hope to find out about them, I hope I've written enough to pique your interest and earn the title of slime ownership :)

[Sarah Vitak]

Hi Ian! Are you still sending out slime? I would love to get some! I'm interested in doing some interactive slime designs. Normally I would try to take them into public to let people play with them. But given Covid I'm thinking about doing an interactive slime live stream! I'm also interested in trying out different species if thats an option. And I would be happy to pay for shipping!

[Bob Lowe]

I would love to grow some of your slime!

I am teaching a class at Southeast Missouri State University called "Bio-Inspired Computation".  One of the projects we do in that class is a simulation of slime mold growth, and we use it to solve various path finding problems. What I want to do with my slime is study how the real organism actually moves. For years I have relied upon videos, pictures, and other programs. I want to study the real thing. I also want to try my hand at finding other computational problems which may have acellular solutions.

I also think a slime mold or two would make terrific office pets.  I have a large drawer all picked out for them and everything!  I'm also tinkering with building a raspberry pi based apparatus for capturing time-lapse slime photos. Perhaps I will stream it to the web as "SlimePi" or something like that.

I will grow my slime in safe conditions, probably using paper towels for general growth and agar for experimental cultures. I have never grown slime molds before, but I have had a fairly successful time raising diatoms.

Where do I see my slime in five years? Hopefully in a journal article, with you and the slime collective mentioned in the acknowledgement section. I would also like to hand out a few cultures to enterprising students for their own experimentation. (Though I will likely do that in a matter of weeks, not years.)

Also, once I get the knack for keeping the cultures going, I plan to go out and hunt some local wild slime.