An inside source for the Inquiry HUB
Today we are attempting to revive the sclerotium. If it works we can put some of our other cultures into storage and focus on one or two. Some of the cultures have produced seed-like pods and are turning white. We think it is due to the washing we gave the lids yesterday. Due to this fact, we are going to leave the cultures over the weekend to recuperate before putting one in the maze.
We had an escape! Most of the cultures had found ways through (despite our sealing job) and grown on the outside of the dishes. We washed the lids and the outsides of the petri dishes, changed the oats by putting the new ones into the centers to lure it back in. Hopefully it works! I’ve been keeping in touch with our followers on the UBC Gardens’ site and they continue to supply us with helpful tips. First thing tomorrow, we start a new culture in the maze; according to my new calculations (I made a mistake when I made the maze) the fastest time it could solve it in is 10.222 (repeat) hours, so I’m going to have to take it home in the afternoon to keep an eye on it.
Something is happening to the original culture! Whether it’s mold or it’s dying I don’t know, but I am trying to figure out what caused it…
The results of today’s sterilizing are either unusable or possible pieces of art. The petri dishes would make nice window pieces and the lego is warped. Hopefully we can still use them!
Today’s the big day! We’re going to make the maze! Let’s see how this turns out…
Today I checked to see if the filter was dry (it wasn’t), put the cultures in the fridge and explained our project to two parties; a fellow student who was interested in the same line of work and a lady who was interested
SCK and I are continually checking if the filter paper in the petri dishes has dried yet, but they never are. I’m starting to wonder… Mold has started to appear in one of the semi-defined (nutrient) agar dishes and some discoloured are appearing in others. Apparently you can’t pre-make and store nutrient agar.
We got lots done today! SCK and I changed the oats in all the cultures, looked at the original one under a microscope, drew up some plans for a maze and completed the last few steps in making sclerotia. Tomorrow I will bring some Lego and we can begin making our maze.
Well I’ve turned of the incubator and the temperature has been slowly decreasing since (from 27.5 – 23 degrees over the course of two hours) tomorrow we will continue on to the next few stages of making sclerotia.
Today SCK and I began the first few stages of putting Physarum Polycephalum into dormancy. We prepared six dishes of semi-defined (nutrient) agar and started new cultures in four of them. The thermometer said 28 degrees when we left it in the incubator, but that can’t be right because it was colder inside than it was out. Tomorrow we continue the long process of making sclerotia.