Pursuing my quest to create the Lex Luthor of the myxomycetes, I’ve been having a play.

200mg rolled oats were mixed with 100mg fresh human blood from a health 46 year old male and air dried for two days, these will henceforth be referred to as the bloody oats.

Fresh physarum strain ‘Mazie’ was raised from sclerotia for three days on filter paper and fed dampened uncooked rolled oats.

Test strips – 5x2cm strips of chromatography paper ( basically white blotting paper ), stacked three high for better moisture retention, saturated with water and drained.

18 strips laid out on one 25x25cm dish, at either end ( randomly chosen ) were placed plain oats and bloody oats. Blocks of wet florist's foam provided humidty in the chamber, this proved to be a bad idea due to their total lack of mechanical stability.

      Figure 1 - Red dots mark the position of bloody oats

A single colonised oat flake was placed in the middle of each strip and the dish covered. Photos were taken with flash every five minutes and the experiment run for 24 hours.

Results – 12 colonies moved exclusively onto the bloody oats, five went for both, one preferred the plain oat.

Conclusion – Physarum ‘Mazie’ prefers bloody oats to plain oats, if physarum could be bred for speed and size this could offer some unique possibilities for a nascent supervillain in need of an amorphous sidekick.