The Slime Mould Collective2024-03-29T15:59:37ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukahhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/368472856?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://slimoco.ning.com/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=14un8fp4p1i7l&feed=yes&xn_auth=noScammers on the sitetag:slimoco.ning.com,2024-02-14:3917201:Topic:1743002024-02-14T10:29:03.807ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>Hello readers!</p>
<p>This is a bit of an unfortunate first post for me haha, however, I thought it might be good to inform people: there is a user by the name of Erica Woodward who has been commenting on new users' profiles (such as mine) to initiate email correspondence in which they attempt to convince you of some bs about inheritance from some doctor who supposedly died a while ago.</p>
<p>Overall, the scam makes no sense and isn't too hard to spot, but I think it should be noted in case…</p>
<p>Hello readers!</p>
<p>This is a bit of an unfortunate first post for me haha, however, I thought it might be good to inform people: there is a user by the name of Erica Woodward who has been commenting on new users' profiles (such as mine) to initiate email correspondence in which they attempt to convince you of some bs about inheritance from some doctor who supposedly died a while ago.</p>
<p>Overall, the scam makes no sense and isn't too hard to spot, but I think it should be noted in case anyone comes across this account. (Personally, I was just a bit sad about not getting to talk about cool slime moulds, if I'm being honest, lol).</p>
<p>It might be good for this user to be removed if possible (I'm very new to the site and am not too sure how things are done around here) as a matter of precaution.</p>
<p>I can also provide proof of this email correspondence if necessary.</p>
<p>I hope this is appropriate to post, just wanted to help if I can.</p>
<p>xx</p>
<p>- G</p> algorithmic model of slime mould decision makingtag:slimoco.ning.com,2024-01-21:3917201:Topic:1735252024-01-21T13:56:09.026ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>Hello!! </p>
<p><span>I have a keen interest in exploring the dynamic functionalities of slime mould for my TFM, through the lens of machine learning. Specifically, I am interested in creating a simplistic machine learning model that emulates the operational dynamics of slime mould. The aim is not to apply the model to solve human problems, such as "the shortest path" or the "Traveling Salesman Problem," as seen in previous research involving slime mould and algorithms. Instead, my goal is…</span></p>
<p>Hello!! </p>
<p><span>I have a keen interest in exploring the dynamic functionalities of slime mould for my TFM, through the lens of machine learning. Specifically, I am interested in creating a simplistic machine learning model that emulates the operational dynamics of slime mould. The aim is not to apply the model to solve human problems, such as "the shortest path" or the "Traveling Salesman Problem," as seen in previous research involving slime mould and algorithms. Instead, my goal is to mathematically formulate and code the functioning of slime mould in Python in some ways which I still don’t have really clear. I envision this project from a posthuman perspective, seeking to develop a “human” code that represents the behavior of a non-human entity within the framework of a posthuman philosophy.</span></p>
<p><span>Do any of you have any advice? Any interesting documents to pass on to me? Some idea? </span></p>
<p><span>I write this post to seek comparison and to expand my research with you. </span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span>Thank you :) </span></p>
<p><span>Matilde </span></p>
<pre class="tw-data-text tw-text-large tw-ta" id="tw-target-text" dir="ltr"><span class="Y2IQFc" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> </span></pre> How to find slime moldstag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-12-05:3917201:Topic:1725052023-12-05T16:11:49.115ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
Hello. Since I wrote this in translation, there may be problems. I am a high school senior living in Turkey. I have been doing research on slime molds for a long time. I want to participate in a scientific competition with them, but I need to do an experiment first. Please tell me how I can find them. How can I find it in the forest?
Hello. Since I wrote this in translation, there may be problems. I am a high school senior living in Turkey. I have been doing research on slime molds for a long time. I want to participate in a scientific competition with them, but I need to do an experiment first. Please tell me how I can find them. How can I find it in the forest? Dark Blue SM found on Moss, stalkless. Help with ID.tag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-08-02:3917201:Topic:1700412023-08-02T14:14:04.605ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>Hi all, I found this Slime Mould growing on Eurhynchiam striatum (Common Moss) I think! but very unusual as cannot identify, stalkless and growing directly on the tips of the moss leaves. They appear to be like small misshaped discs all <1.0mm, dark blue with globose spores at 10.60 - 11.94 µm with 2.35 capillitium ending with Y-shaped ends hyaline. Spores pale purple grey with just visible spines at around 0.3µm. On large dead trunk of Fagus. Please can you help? First time here, so…</p>
<p>Hi all, I found this Slime Mould growing on Eurhynchiam striatum (Common Moss) I think! but very unusual as cannot identify, stalkless and growing directly on the tips of the moss leaves. They appear to be like small misshaped discs all <1.0mm, dark blue with globose spores at 10.60 - 11.94 µm with 2.35 capillitium ending with Y-shaped ends hyaline. Spores pale purple grey with just visible spines at around 0.3µm. On large dead trunk of Fagus. Please can you help? First time here, so pleased I found you all.</p> Physarum polycephalum as springtail foodtag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-07-26:3917201:Topic:1696682023-07-26T17:00:18.422ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>I recently got some Physarum from Ian (thanks!!), and it has been doing amazingly well for me. I'm highly enjoying keeping and observing the slime mold so far, but my actual goal was to try using it as springtail food for a species of picky eaters - Vitronura giselae. Other species in the Neanuridae family are known to feed on slime mold, and my initial experiments with these springtails showed some promise -- I just didn't have much luck trying to culture a random wild slime I found, or…</p>
<p>I recently got some Physarum from Ian (thanks!!), and it has been doing amazingly well for me. I'm highly enjoying keeping and observing the slime mold so far, but my actual goal was to try using it as springtail food for a species of picky eaters - Vitronura giselae. Other species in the Neanuridae family are known to feed on slime mold, and my initial experiments with these springtails showed some promise -- I just didn't have much luck trying to culture a random wild slime I found, or some Fuligo septica.</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>But the Physarum seems very easy to keep, and has already grown a lot, so I went ahead and introduced a small bit of plasmodium into one of my V. giselae cultures. And as hoped, they are showing some interest in it.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161300690?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161300690?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>These springtails have a conical mouth that is specialized for sucking up food, and in this one you can see the mouth stuck into the plasmodium.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161302270?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161302270?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p> Some help regarding growth and inoculation please!tag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-07-18:3917201:Topic:1691412023-07-18T12:13:15.903ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>Hey physarumnators!<br></br> <br></br> I am a year 12 student who is experimenting with physarum polycephalum to make optimised networks (similar to the famous tokyo railway experiment) to solve urban design issues as a part of a design folio. However, I have had some trouble actually inoculating the physarum onto my design. If someone could tell me what I am doing wrong, or could improve that will be great!<br></br> <br></br> This is how I am going about this:<br></br> I place oat flakes on a 2% agar petri…</p>
<p>Hey physarumnators!<br/> <br/> I am a year 12 student who is experimenting with physarum polycephalum to make optimised networks (similar to the famous tokyo railway experiment) to solve urban design issues as a part of a design folio. However, I have had some trouble actually inoculating the physarum onto my design. If someone could tell me what I am doing wrong, or could improve that will be great!<br/> <br/> This is how I am going about this:<br/> I place oat flakes on a 2% agar petri dish (non nutrient based) while following a map that I created. I have sterilised the plane rolled oats by placing them in the oven on 160 degrees celsius for 20 minutes. I place my oats using tweesers which I place in a 70% ethanol diggers methylated spirit solution, and then burn the tip of using a gas stove to get rid of the ethanol. I am doing so to get a sterile culture, which seems to be working 90% of the time. <br/> <br/> The main issue/concern for me is the way I transfer physarum cultures onto the plate. I have sourced my cultures from Southern Biological supply and allow them to grow on the culture petri dish by placing oat flakes around the petri dish which seems to be working great. there are two main techniques i have tried. <br/> <br/> 1) I have broken colonised oat flakes to about 2-4mm pieces and placed onto my desired petri dish to allow them to grow. This resulted in sort of linear growth - only one strand is growing and often leaves a whitish trail behind and does not form plasmodium/scavenging growth. this is also really slow!<br/> <br/> 2) I then tried to place a 2x2x2mm agar cube of physarum, face down onto the petri dish to allow it to colonise the plate. This was better, but the growth was quite tiny, and it is not really moving like normal. my cube might be too small? I also did not place it in direct contact to any oat flake, so maybe it needs some nutrition to actually start making those networks?<br/> <br/> Also, the Physarum might be dehydrated? most websites say that the physarum does not need to be watered if it is being grown on a moist medium like agar, is this true? I have also been keeping it completely in a dark cupboard, without access to any sort of sunlight/indirect sunlight which I know can do many things to initiate things in the physarums life cycle. <br/><br/>I have also come accross this paper, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-05439-w">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-05439-w</a> <br/><br/>which is similar to my design - but when they place their inoculating piece onto their plate, they surround it with outfakes (which I have not tried). This is what I will be trying next</p> Sm and packaging designtag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-07-14:3917201:Topic:1692302023-07-14T13:39:47.152ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>Hi Collective ! I represent a group of creative packaging designers in corrugated board. We are going to work with SM to see if we can find fresh thinking with box design and transport networks our packaging moves through - e-commerce couriers and palletized shipments.</p>
<p>First question of many - does the amount of food placed have any bearing on the interaction with the slime ? Does it "do more" around more food, less around smaller pieces - thinking of weighting certain design elements…</p>
<p>Hi Collective ! I represent a group of creative packaging designers in corrugated board. We are going to work with SM to see if we can find fresh thinking with box design and transport networks our packaging moves through - e-commerce couriers and palletized shipments.</p>
<p>First question of many - does the amount of food placed have any bearing on the interaction with the slime ? Does it "do more" around more food, less around smaller pieces - thinking of weighting certain design elements .....</p> Physarum in a fish tanktag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-07-14:3917201:Topic:1691342023-07-14T08:00:21.345ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>We are currently trying to grow a sample we have in a fish tank.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Has anyone done this or similiar?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Any advice on best conditions would be much appreciated</p>
<p></p>
<p>Karl<a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12145288089?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12145288089?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>We are currently trying to grow a sample we have in a fish tank.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Has anyone done this or similiar?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Any advice on best conditions would be much appreciated</p>
<p></p>
<p>Karl<a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12145288089?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12145288089?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p> Bob the blob.tag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-06-26:3917201:Topic:1689942023-06-26T02:27:08.297ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>I thought I'd make a thread to chronicle the exploits of my slime mold, Bob. Bob the blob.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I accidentally collected Bob around the beginning of this month, when I was out looking for and collecting some orange springtails. Bob was a small orange speck, and I was looking for small orange specks.. When I was back inside and going through the spoils of my collection under my stereo microscope, I noticed that it wasn't a springtail, but some solid chunk of orange substance. I…</p>
<p>I thought I'd make a thread to chronicle the exploits of my slime mold, Bob. Bob the blob.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I accidentally collected Bob around the beginning of this month, when I was out looking for and collecting some orange springtails. Bob was a small orange speck, and I was looking for small orange specks.. When I was back inside and going through the spoils of my collection under my stereo microscope, I noticed that it wasn't a springtail, but some solid chunk of orange substance. I figured it was probably some sort of fungus or something, so I threw it in the culture with the orange springtails I had collected, thinking they might eat it.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12126826278?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12126826278?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Well, I checked in on them the next day. And whoo boy! The solid orange chunk had turned into goop and started moving around! I immediately recognized it as a slime mold. I decided to leave it in the springtail enclosure and see if the springtails would be interested it in. And it turns out, they were.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12126826477?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12126826477?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Unfortunately, there wasn't much in there, and the springtails seemed to be damaging it, so I took some out and put it in another container by itself. I used the same sort of setup that i was using for my springtails, since that already seemed to be working. A 4oz deli cup with a mixture of about 10:1 plaster and carbon powder. I tried a few different foods - some millet seed, and a couple of types of springtail food. It seemed to like spirulina, so that's mostly what I fed it. It was at this point that I named it Bob.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Bob was in pretty poor shape at this point. Just a tiny speck of plasmodium, not even really able to branch hardly at all. But it kept eating the spirulina I put down beside it, and was growing (albiet slowly).</p>
<p></p>
<p>In the meantime, I had been working on putting together a little setup with a 60mm olympus macro lens attached to a wyze wifi webcam, so I could take some timelapses. After a week or two I finally got it ready, and I moved Bob into a dark closet, and started taking a timelapse. It was great being able to actually see Bob move! I knew Bob moved of course, it was always different when I looked in throughout the day, but I hadn't yet been able to actually see the movement.</p>
<p></p>
<p>After a couple of days in the dark closet though, Bob pulled in on itself and coagulated into a few small balls. I tried adding some more water, and putting food on/by it, but Bob was refusing to come out of its self-induced coma.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12126827262?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12126827262?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="500" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>I get you Bob, sometimes I feel that way too.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I wasn't sure if these were fruiting bodies, or sclerotia or what. So I posted to facebook and got some advice from some knowledgeable people there. They mentioned that it should be kept in a shaded area out of direct light, but not in total darkness. So, I took it out of the dark closet and put it back where I had been keeping it previously. And wouldn't ya know it, Bob started perking back up. Or well, turning into goop. Which I guess is the slime mold equivalent of perking up.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And that's the story of Bob so far.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I was hoping to culture and propagate Bob, to use as food for my orange springtails. But with as slow as Bob is growing so far, I'm not sure if that's feasible. But I'm invested in Bob now, and want to see it succeed and grow regardless :)</p>
<p></p>
<p>time lapses:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ1sD_EKFEY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ1sD_EKFEY</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ighgfAfqvCA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ighgfAfqvCA</a></p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Advice rearing from sporetag:slimoco.ning.com,2023-06-16:3917201:Topic:1684632023-06-16T13:45:43.881ZSarah Choukahhttps://slimoco.ning.com/profile/SarahChoukah
<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>It’s been a while since I’ve raised some slime mold, but I’ve gotten back into it recently. I’m in NYC, and collected some wood a few weeks back to rear some beetles. After some time, I noticed a plasmodium popped up, so I transferred it on its wood into a dish with wet paper towel. Unfortunately, I’ve since run into issues. The first few days went fine, but I noticed that it really didn’t want to come off of the piece of wood to search for oats, just spread around the wood.…</p>
<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>It’s been a while since I’ve raised some slime mold, but I’ve gotten back into it recently. I’m in NYC, and collected some wood a few weeks back to rear some beetles. After some time, I noticed a plasmodium popped up, so I transferred it on its wood into a dish with wet paper towel. Unfortunately, I’ve since run into issues. The first few days went fine, but I noticed that it really didn’t want to come off of the piece of wood to search for oats, just spread around the wood. Before long, it started to clump up and I believe has now formed sporangia at an extremely small size. What’s the best protocol moving forward to try and raise a new batch? Should I wait a few days to make sure the sporangia are fully formed first? I can then dry them out and suspend some spores in solution with a bit of oat, but I don’t have agar available to then seed colonies, so maybe I could just pour it onto paper towel? There’s some photos below; if anyone is able to identify from what little is visible that’d be appreciated.</p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11914010261?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11914010261?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11913935078?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11913935078?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p><a href="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11914118483?profile=original" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/11914118483?profile=RESIZE_710x" class="align-full"/></a></p>
<p>On a side note: has there been any discussion of forming a Discord or similar for this community? I saw there’s a Facebook group but a server may be convenient for shorter or more informal communication.</p>
<p>Thanks,</p>
<p>Arman</p>