Why slime?

[ian]

I started getting into Physarum last year - I've worked with the cellular slime mold dictyostelium before and I was asked to prepare some slime mold time lapse footage for some public lectures.  Seeing as we'd finished the dicty work and they're quite dull I decided to get a more entertaining organism. Once I'd finished the film footage I'd grown quite fond of them and started keeping a culture or two going in the lab, and then at home.

I work with microscopes- my day job involves running them, training people on them and swearing at them when they misbehave, Physarum turns out to be a great thing to have around, far more interesting than a standard test slide and more entertaining to teach microscopy with because of its tendency to move around and to obligingly eat the fluorescent dyes I offer it. 

I also do a lot of work with science communication and outreach, particularly with schools and Physarum is great as a macroscopic microscopic organism - it exhibits chemotaxis, phototaxis and as an added bonus solves mazes and escapes from perti dishes - all without the need for sterile conditions. It's my firm intention to become a slime evangelist and ensure that every school in the surround area gets covered in a yellow network of pulsating tubules. 

[Cristóbal González Vidal]

thanks for the inspiration

[Hans-Günther Döbereiner]

We have devlopped an inexpensive observation chamber for school. For 300-500 Euros you can film physarum in a temperature controlled environment. Its based on the RhasberryPi and a self-built incubation box.