GMU:DIY Biolab “Driver’s License”/Jiannan Zhang/3.Experiment

15/12/2017---experiment 1: start with waking up the slime molds

To have better samples to build the art installation, try to wake up old slime molds samples by growing them in the medium.

four samples:

A-normal medium(pure agar, salt, yeast, water..)+8-10 pieces of cereals

B-normal medium

C&D-normal medium+wet and old filter paper

samples are kept in dark lockers under 20 degrees

20/12/2017---experiment 2: waking up new slime molds samples from Sinan

samples from the last experiment failed.

Sample A was seriously contaminated. Nothing happened in sample B, C, &D

reason could be too much cereals or others

repeat the experiment with 3 more samples:

all in same condition: medium(Compound agar, water...)+1 piece of cereal

samples are kept in dark lockers under 24-26 degrees

21/12/2017---Update on experiment 2: bacteria

the samples look like contaminated by some bacteria in the middle

23/12/2017---Update on experiment 2: failed

the samples are contaminated and slime molds didn't wake up

reasons could be the temperature was too warm for the slime molds, food was too little and it was not humid enough inside the mediums

02/01/2018---experiment 3: grow new samples(from sinan) under suitable temperature

repeat the experiment with 4 more samples:

all in same condition: medium(Compound agar, water...)+3 pieces of cereal

A-sealed and kept on a shelf, 20 degrees;

B-not sealed and in a locker, 22 degrees;

C-sealed and kept in a locker, 22 degrees;

D-not sealed and kept on a shelf, 20 degrees.

08/01/2018---Update on experiment 3: possibly slime molds once woke up but died afterwards

all the samples are contaminated to some extend, but sample B shows similar trace of growing slime molds according to the shape

I will try this sample again and another ones with new humid filter papers and wood chips(which i searched online are good mediums for slime molds)

got the sections of the human brain model, 10 layers in total

10/01/2018---Experiment 4: comparing mushroom and oat flakes as food, agar and filter paper as medium

after research on the growth of slime molds in lab, Sinan and i decided to try different food and medium.

it was suggested to use humid filter paper or wood chips as the living environment of slime molds. However it is not easy to get fresh and clean wood chips. but filter paper is quite easy to acquire in our lab. And slime molds in nature often take mushrooms as their main food. In this case we would like to see if there would be any changes after we use different medium and food.

To provide enough space for mushroom and slime molds, i had 2 large petri dishes. I also prepared 2 normal sized petri dishes to make a comparison.

A-medium: agar, food: oat flakes;

B-medium: humid filter paper, food: oat flakes;

C-medium: agar, food: mushroom slices;

D-medium: filter paper, food: mushroom slices.

All the samples were taken home and kept in dark environment, under 24 degrees. The samples with filter papers were filled with drops of water every day to keep them humid.\

12/01/2018---Update on experiment 4

After 2 days' growth, the samples with agar show different levels of contamination.

On the contrary, there is nearly no change in the samples with filter papers, no contamination, no growth of slime molds.

In the meantime, I cut a 2mm thick plexiglass in to 70mm*70mm square pieces to build my prototype.

17/01/2018---Update on experiment 4 and experiment 5

Sample A and C are contaminated but there is a little piece of slime molds growing in sample C.

Sample B is contaminated by some white furry molds which grew from the oat flakes. Sample D has no obvious change inside the petri dish.

At the same time of this experiment, i also checked some old samples to see if there is any surprising progress. and i found a sample from 2 weeks ago has some suspected slime molds in it.

According the result i think it is better to keep using agar as the medium, and feeding slime molds with oat flakes, since there's no big influence the filter paper brought and mushrooms were not consumed much.

To proceed i take Mi ga's advice that i could feed more food to the successful samples and meanwhile use these samples to grow more. I put more oat flakes into sample C and the old sample.

Then Sinan and i picked up slime molds from these two and grow more. i have 4 new samples. Just to try to get more slime molds. so all the samples are in same medium and environment, fed by same food.

24/01/2018---Update on experiment 5 and plan on how to proceed

Unfortunately, all the samples fed with oat flakes were severely contaminated because of the oatmeals going bad themselves.

After this final experiment, i had a meeting with the class. Because of the short time we have for this semester, professor suggested me to analyze the success and failure on different samples, trying to find out why slime molds cannot grow well in winter. He encouraged us to research more and if it's possible, grow more samples in march. we might get different results.

The point of this project is not to build an art work, but to research on organisms and get to know them by experiments and reading articles. So the prior goal is to have my own understanding of slime molds.

31/01/2018---Experiment 6

Miga brought me some good samples to grow. Even not for the exhibition, just to try out again and find the best growing conditions for slime molds. And I prepared new oat flakes in case of contamination. Samples were kept in warm(25 degree celsius) and dark environment.

Sample 1&2: wet filter paper, oat flakes

Sample 3: Agar, oat flakes.

1/02/2018---Update on experiment 6

Nothing obvious happened in the samples.

3/02/2018---Update on experiment 6

Sample 1 grew really well, sample 2 grew a little, but still nothing happened with sample 3.

4/02/2018---Update on experiment 6

To my surprise, sample 1&2 are growing in a very good condition, almost covered the oat flakes. The color looks pretty good as well. To further feed them, I put more oat flakes into the petri dishes.

At last all the samples died slowly due to the humidity change. I think i turned the heat too high and water inside those petri dishes all evaporated. But I am very happy about the last experiment since the samples once grew really well for about 4 days. No matter what it was a great improvement for me. After all most of my experiments failed very quickly.