GMU:DIY Bio: doing things with biology/Paola Stephania Calderón/20.11.2018

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A new experiment is made, taking the investigation results from Caicedo around the ideal medium for growing Polycephalum/physarum.

A medium is prepared with the following quantities;

  • 100 ml of water
  • 12 gr of cooked potatoes
  • 12 gr of oat flakes
  • (mix together)
  • 2gr of agar
  • (mix all together and boiled 2 minutes)

The result with this medium is a thick mixture, that is not very malleable in order to put it inside the Petri dish. I tried to use it the best I can and put the samples in different spaces in the Petri dish.

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After one week all samples in this experiment have mold and died. NOTE: in some of the samples a pink/red specimen/contamination/mutation appeared, that have also appeared in other samples that I made in another medium, this can be found in the further experiments shown here.

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  • Day 1: I made a new mixture that has double and a half quantities of water in order to try a new medium, the medium is made like this;


  • 100 ml of water
  • 4 gr of cooked potatoes
  • 4 gr of oat flakes
  • (mix together)
  • 2 gr of agar
  • (mix all together and boiled 2 minutes)

Bio-06a.png

  • Day 2: The sample with the new medium is already growing. New samples with the same medium are made in order to have new samples. Growing Polycephalum/physarum in winter is a little difficult because of the temperatures, I have achieved that some of these samples grow in a place with a controlled temperature of around 19°C. Other samples are left in the laboratory inside the incubator with a temperature of 20°C.

Bio-06b.png

  • Day 5: The samples left in a place with a controlled temperature of around 19°C growth in a healthy way and fast.

Wd48.jpg

  • Day 7: A new medium is created with the same specifications, and the specimen is moved. In this sample the specimen growths healthy and fast.

CONCLUSIONS:

This medium contains a lot of elements that help the specimen to feed correctly, and because of this, it grows fast and strong. It is an ideal medium to grow the specimen in winter.