All Blog Posts (122)

To curb Physarum Polycephalum's (for convenience known as Andi in our household) tendency to wander, I have used a 'moat', a ring of high-salt agar around its standard agar living area. This works fine, only is somewhat labor intensive to maintain and also harms Andi, who keeps burning itself trying to go where no slime mold went before.



I experimented with four alternative substrates to replace the salty agar: 1. felt, thinking this would interfere with its creeping motion; 2.…

growth simulation

I've been looking for a way to rear physarum from spores without resorting to bacterial lawns and needing autoclaves etc.

I've only done a couple of trials but this method seems to work ok, it does require a bit of patience.

I used petri dishes and filter paper but any container and a bit of tissue should work.

The idea is to let the food go off producing bacteria for the amoebal phase to feed off then slowly dry them out so they get persuaded to form…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0bRrEQrLog

My experiment: …

Hi everybody,

Can we assume that a blob is part of flatland inhabitants as presented in the fiml :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyuNrm4VK2w

FJD

Hi everybody !

Did you know about aquatic blobs in aquariums ?

extract from : http://www.aquachange.fr/poisson_fiche_aquarium.php?id=317 ;

Abstract : The Didyum plasmoids are rare, they can be found at hydrangea foot.

They are not toxic for aquarium live, and the only way to get rid of them is to completely renew aquarium as they resist to any anti-fungal…

Which Voltage is a blob sensitive to ?

An experiment from FJ Deminière.

File available on my drop box folder:

FJD's Blob Folder

Experiment with 4 test zones

What we need:

A « Petri » Box, at least 2 current lab generators,…

Which Magnetism is a blob sensitive to?

An experiment from FJ Deminière.

File available on my drop box folder:

FJD's Blob Folder

Experiment with 4 test zones

What we need:

A « Petri » Box and several magnet and magnetic…

Which polarization do a blob will like/freak most?

An experiment from FJ Deminière.

File available on my drop box folder:

FJD's Blob Folder

Experiment with 4 filters and a white / blue light

What we need:

A Black « Petri »…

Witch color do a blob will like/freak most ?

An experiment from FJ Deminière.

File available on my drop box folder:

FJD's Blob Folder

Experiment with 8 Leds from Infra-Red to White passing by Ultra violet.…

Hi everybody, and Happy New Year.





My yound dougther is to be enter in Veterinarian studies after graduation... As she is interested in biology (and what ever around living), she browse scientific news on the web. Recently  she saw a TEDx Presentation about "Blob" intelligence. Now  she wants to try educate one "Clever Slime" too.



Do somebody could send us a sample to start experiments ? I've read about a ring somewhere on the site... Is it alive ?



We live in…

After extensive research, I noticed that there are a few gaps in the field of slime mold research.  Are there any major areas that need to be investigated? Any replies would help, thanks. 

can anyone tell me substitutes for agar? I heard unflavored gelatin works but I don't know. Please respond as soon as u can, I have a project I'm working on. Thank you

Four weeks of crazy work,  turning the spare room into a culture lab and time lapse studio I made enough culture for two thousand people and I should be there with my friends and colleagues on the stand inspiring the next generation of scientists,  slime fans and eccentrics.  

Unfortunately I'm stuck on a hospital ward with fifty stitches in my neck waiting until I'm allowed home. So it goes I suppose but damn I was looking forward to the Big Bang Fair,  I couldn't even bring a slime…

Here is also the video of the mould processed whith MATLAB which was described in our earlier paper.

As some might have noticed, I've been working on a schoolpaper (we call it a profielwerkstuk) and we've finally finished it, so here down below you can download our final paper. Have to warn though, we did not exactly manage to do everything we wanted to, but I think it still might be interesting and inspiring to read it. In it is also described a very good method for culturing the mould. Hope you'll enjoy!…

Working on hacking compact cameras (all as cheap as possible off e-bay) to take time lapse and also to use as camera traps using an Arduino and sensors to acheive this and so far have had a lot of success. Moving house so unable to do much for a few weeks but when I start back up will post pictures and instructions so that anyone can follow. All that is reqired is some soldering and an arduino the progamming is very simple, but soldering is difficult if you have no…

I am fascinated to find a collective of single cell organisims that has so organized itself to accomplish mutually advantageous outcomes . . . would that our leaders in congress could operate so harmoniously . . . I wonder if Physarum Polycephalum would accept a write-in vote?