The Slime Mould Collective

An international network of/for intelligent organisms

Physarum doesn't like exposure to light - I'm pretty sure we've all noticed that. Physarum is also yellow - fairly sure that's not news to anyone - because because its pigments absorb other wavelengths wavelengths. In other words, it can't sense yellow light because it reflects it. 

Cleaning up trays in the lab the other day I was reminded how well those pigments dissolve in alcohol ( my standard approach to cleaning is throw ethanol on everything). 

If we extract a load of pigment from physarum and shine light through it  the only wavelengths that pass through should be the ones that our little friends simply cannot sense - we can make a lamp for exhibiting slime moulds from the liquefied corpses of its clones ! A physarum necrolantern! As soon as I've spare slime ( which is basically every other day) I'll start putting this into practise 

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You're a madman, I'm in. maybe use gelatin to create a light filter gel and use that.

Seeing as I accidentally watered a catering tray of Mazie with floor cleaner ( downside of reusing bottles - I really should label stuff ), I've started - 200ml absolute ethanol in a bottle, scraped off all the yellow goo and dumped it in. I'll keep adding gunk, when it looks to be about 50% solid material I'll decant, dry and try making a gel sheet with a suitably gothic holder

Useful thing - Acetone extract of physarum when UV irradiated will induce sporulation - could come in handy for reluctant sporulators. I'm using ethanol but acetone might be an easier substance for most people to find. I might see what I can do, I've had an X32 in open tray for over a week now

How do you go about doing this? Mix acetone with physarum and allow to dry or keep wet?  Just picked up a fresh bottle yesterday for cleaning some stubborn glassware, now I'm thinking I'll have to give this a go.

They used a rotavap I think so air drying would do, this stuff probably isn't heat stable. Open pdf version here Slime pigment

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