A Growing Tip of Glowing Physarum

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Comment by Anna Sagatov on April 8, 2013 at 3:16

Hey Soichiro, have you seen this album on Sarah Roberts' page? http://slimoco.ning.com/photo/albums/imaging-the-brain-with-old-tec...

It seems as though she fed the slime mold fluorescent particles on its oat flakes and it had no ill effect- in fact, it left the fluorescence wherever it foraged.  I've tried contacting her about what she used but she hasn't gotten back to me!  I'd like to experiment with this method and see how the slime mold reacts.  I was also thinking of exhibiting it under a UV light to enhance the glowing effect. I'll let you know how it goes.  Thanks for your response!

Comment by Soichiro Tsuda on April 8, 2013 at 2:53

Anna, I can't remember the name of fluorescent particles, but any of them would do. You can check a supplier like Thermo http://www.thermoscientific.com/ecomm/servlet/productscatalog_11152...
However, you need a fluorescent microscope to see fluorescent particles! Dye particles may do, but I've never tried. What I've done here was just simply mixed slime mould and a drop of particles and cultured overnight on an agar plate. To be honest, most of slime mould seems to be dead, only a tiny fraction of cells were growing. The microscope image above is a tip of survived cell.
If you just wanna colour slime mould, I'd recommend mixing food colourings with oatflakes and feed them to slime moulds.

Comment by Anna Sagatov on April 7, 2013 at 22:18

What brand of fluorescent particles did you use here?  Do I need to order some from a biological supply company?

Comment by Anita on January 13, 2012 at 18:52

Thanks for the information - it does help to show the flow.

Comment by Soichiro Tsuda on January 13, 2012 at 12:15

That's fluorescent polystylene particles mixed into slime mould. you can imagine it's like particles injected into your blood vessels. They are transported as blood (for slime mould) flows through the veins.As they are articially introduced stuff, they do nothing on slime mould and no information or anything.... And yes, it's in real time.

Comment by Anita on January 13, 2012 at 11:56

Thanks for this amazing film! What exactly are the moving particles? Are they transmitting information or actually building the tip? And is this in real time? Sorry about all the questions, but this is utterly fascinating!

Comment by Soichiro Tsuda on August 23, 2011 at 6:02

Thanks. That was pretty easy to make it though (just simply mixed slime mould and particles!).

And yes, various fluorescent particle colours are available from red to blue.

Comment by Theresa on August 21, 2011 at 18:56

beautiful. thanks for posting. can you get fluorescent particles in any colour?