Inquiry on Slime Mould Includes information on basic care, making sclerotia, and maze experiment.

1. Inquiry 4
How Long Does it Take Slime
Mould to Solve a Simple Maze?
By ASH and SCK

2. Interesting Facts about Slime Mould
 Favourite Food: Old fashioned rolled oats
 Top Growth Speed: 1.8 cm/hr.
 Preferred Growing Conditions: dark, damp, warm
 Diet: decaying organisms, other fungi, yeast, rice, pasta
 Number of Known Species: 450
 They are the world’s largest single-celled organism!
 If cut, slime mould will put itself back together
Scientific Name: Physarum Polycephalum

3. Types of Slime Mould in BC
 Dog’s vomit (Fuligo septica)
 Lindbladia tabulina
 Wolf’s milk (Lycogala epidendrum)
 Unidentified white slime mould
 Trichia c.f. decepiens
 Tubifera feruginosa
 Tapioca slime (Brefeldia maxima)
 Chocolate tube slime moulds (Stemonitis sp.)

4. What you Need to Sustain Slime
Mould
You should also have
Required Materials for Growing: a dark, dry place for
 Slime Mould the mould to grow
 Petri dish and/or sealed container (ex. Tupperware)
 Old fashioned oat flakes
 Aluminum foil
Other Things to Have On Hand:
 Paper towels
 Scalpels
 Forceps or tweezers
 Electrical tape
 Rubbing alcohol / autoclave / pot (method of steralization)
 Bleach
 Incubator

5. Our Experiment…
Getting Slime Mould to solve a simple
maze

6. Procedure
Step 1: Collect necessary materials
for maze-building
(container, lego, agar, oats, etc.)
Step 2: Build maze
Step 3: Prepare maze (add oats)
Step 4: Transfer piece of actively growing
slime mould to maze
Step 5: Check on mould periodically at approximately
30-60 minute intervals

7. Hypothesis
Step 1: We measured the
distance of the fastest route
through the maze (About 19
cm)
Step 2: We calculated the time
it would take using the fastest
possible growth speed (1.8
cm/hr.)
The result of our calculations was 10.56
hours.

8. Results
Start Time: 9:24 am (February 13th)
End Time: 7:24 pm (February 15th)
It took approximately 34 hours for the mould to solve
the maze.

9. Conclusion
It takes Slime Mould about 34 hours to solve a
maze with a shortest distance of 19 cm.
Slime Mould’s growing speed is about 0.56 cm / hr.
Possible Explanations for Not Solving the Maze at
Top Growth Speed:
• Multiple changes in environment
• Room temperature – not incubated
• Lack of nutrients to start with

10. Road Blocks
 Sterilizing petri dishes
 Sterilizing Lego
 Contamination
 Empty nutrient transfers
 Culture overload! – Too many cultures at once

11. Future Experiments
Can Slime Mould Remember a Maze Route?
Rebuild the same maze and use the same culture
for it.
Tracing Growth Rate
Use a permanent marker to trace the growth of
slime mould on the bottom of a petri dish.
Different Mazes
Try different mazes

12. A General Recap:
What We Did
 Practiced basic care:
 Exchanging oats
 Subculturing
 Effects of incubator on growth
 Plated petri dishes with agar
 Made sclerotia
 Tested the air for bacteria

13. Sources (Care Instructions, Requirements & Growing
Procedures)
 A Simple Method of Growing the Plasmodial Slime Mold:
http://www.buildingthepride.com/faculty/pgdavison/PHYSARUM%20culture%20for%20
web.html
 Cultivating Slime Moulds:
http://www.sciencefairadventure.com/ProjectDetail.aspx?ProjectID=121
 Slime Mold Growing Kit:
http://www.educationalassistance.org/Physarum/EasyToGrow/Carolina%20Biological%2
0-%20Slime%20Mold%20Kit%20Instrux.pdf
 Top Tips for growing Physarum Polycephalum:
http://slimoco.ning.com/forum/topics/top-tips-for-growing-physarum
 Amateur Scientist - Slime mold (care):
http://miriam-english.org/files/slime-molds/AmateurScientist_slime-mold.html
 Education.com - Slime Mold :
http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/biology_cultivating-slime-molds/

14. Sources Cont. (General Information)
 Slime molds in British Columbia:
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/SlimeMolds.html
 Slime mold:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold
 Introduction to the "Slime Molds":
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/protista/slimemolds.html
 Types of Slime Mould:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-
nature/phenom_mar01.html#ixzz2F46QXJvZ
 Why Slime Molds can Solve Mazes Better Than Robots:
http://io9.com/5950984/why-slime-molds-can-solve-mazes-better-than-robots
 Wards Natural Science:
http://wardsci.com/images/art/Physarum.pdf
 Amoeboid:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoeboid

15. Sources Cont. (Images)
 Wolf’s Milk Slime Mould:
http://www.melodymcfarland.com/?p=2937
 Chocolate Tube Slime Mould:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/littledave/7310395104/