GMU:If the organism will not come to me, I will go to the organism/Introduction

Organisms

Euglena gracilis

“Euglena are found in fresh and salt waters. They are often abundant in quiet inland waters where they may bloom in numbers sufficient to color the surface of ponds and ditches green (E. viridis) or red (E. sanguinea).” (wikipedia)

“Most species of Euglena have photosynthesizing chloroplasts within the body of the cell, which enable them to feed by autotrophy, like plants. However, they can also take nourishment heterotrophically, like animals.” (wikipedia)

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  Euglena. Source: wikimedia.org]]

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Physarum polycephalum

Is unicellular, multinucleated plasmodium "Physarum polycephalum, literally the "many-headed slime", is a slime mold that inhabits shady, cool, moist areas, such as decaying leaves and logs. Like slime molds in general, it is sensitive to light; in particular, light can repel the slime mold and be a factor in triggering spore growth."(wikipedia)

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Related student projects

Physarum Polycephalum

• Writing system for Non-Human species by Fernanda Caicedo
• Farewell PP by Antje Danz

Euglena Gracilis

• Euglena clock by Leoni Fischer
• Bio boardgame with Euglena by Nastaran Sahraei

Other References

Euglena gracilis

• Ingmar Riedel-Kruse lab at stanford university. human-biology interaction (HBI). Euglena, physarum and other organisms in collaboration with humans. Trap it! Museum visitors could use blue, green or red light to draw patterns on the screen and observe how the Euglena reacted. The microorganisms avoided blue light, so drawing a circle around one of the microbes would trap it, which became the name for one of the scientific mini-games, http://web.stanford.edu/group/riedel-kruse/publications/CHI517-lee.pdf
• Ingmar Riedel-Kruse lab. Euglena soccer. biotic-games. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lwU9deF8rw start at 27:05

Physarum polycephalum

• The Blob, documentary, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdp35w4u9cw
• The slime mold collective, http://slimoco.ning.com/

Experiments

Euglena gracilis

• Bioconvection, File:Mikrokosmos_85_2_P_21-30-1.pdf
• Euglena and light, File:euglena-light-experiment.pdf

Physarum polycephalum

• Maze, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UfMU9TsoEM
• Interspecies encounter, Heather Barnett, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbEirySHYXc