Entry 6, Reflection

Challenge 1:
Hypothesis: There wasn't much to hypothesize just with the challenge being that it was to create a culture of the Physarum. I did, however, assume that it would grow fast and by the time two days had past that the entire petri dish would be filled.
End result: The hypothesis wasn't supported because the culture was small after the two days and hadn't reached most of the oat flakes.
Reflection: Over the course of this challenge and its results, I realized that this can be applied to life in the sense that, if left in the most idea setting and with the ideal surroundings, life can flourish to its highest potential. This challenge wasn't really much of challenge and was really just a stepping stone into the other challenges and getting started on experimenting.

Challenge 2:
Hypothesis: With the control and 3 newly added substances, I was under the impression that the Physarum would reach the control first, being studied by scientists as the "favorite food" of the Physarum. After the control, however, I hypothesized that the Physarum would then reach the:  honey second, lemon juice third, and then finally go for the salted oat flake.
End result: It was indeterminable as to whether the hypothesis was supported or not due to the circumstances that occurred during this challenge. With the appearance of black mold, the experiment had to be ceased.
Reflection: It was difficult to pull any analysis from this experiment due to the failure that happened. Understanding that the Physarum has preferences, however, just goes to show that life can be altered based upon the external stimuli. In nearly all instances of life, the living organism will seek the ideal. We can alter life by giving choices and making decisions based upon the choices presented to us.

Challenge 3:
Hypothesis: With the labyrinth, I assumed that the Physarum would reach its destination without trouble and maneuver in an efficient way through the maze.
End result: The hypothesis in this situation was, more or less, supported. It became obvious that efficiency was the Physarum's goal due to the fact that it went underneath the maze and found the fastest way to the nutrients it was seeking.
Reflection: The Physarum represented that we as a people will jump through hoops, fight obstacles for the right goal. In terms of body modification, sometimes the goal is to be or simply to feel more beautiful/handsome/attractive. We may fight through our own "labyrinth" do get this body modification that we desire.

Challenge 4:
Hypothesis: This experience had be believing that the Physarum would simply extend veins in every direction, weaving through the "buildings", latching onto the food from several different directions.
End result: The thin, spindly veins showed that not much energy was exerted from the physarum in an attempt to remain efficient. The Physarum truly found the most efficient and direct path through the buildings showing that my hypothesis was not supported.
Reflection: Relating to body modification, this challenge related to the same idea that the third challenge presented. Even with obstacles in our path, the right goal can give us the ability to get through them.

Entry 5, Day 5

Returning after the snow break, we finally go to see the results of the final challenge. Opening our fourth petri dish, we saw the results of the Physarum's journey around the obstacle of buildings. Unfortunately, however, there wasn't much visible progress between the buildings. The veins were thin and difficult to see.

As shown above, they did obviously reach their destination. A "colony" had formed over the oat flakes again and the Physarum had set up base. It had obviously found its way through the obstacles in its way and found a fast and efficient way to do so. 

Finally, with all the experiments having come to a close, we decided to dispose of the petri dishes and prevent unmanageable spreading.  

Entry 4, Day 4

Seeing as our culture was completely overgrown and our second experiment had created black mold and impaired any further progress, the only experiment we had to check the progress of was the most recent one. 

The progress through the maze was difficult to see, but there was a thin vein the weaved its way through the maze and had set up a second "home" right on top of the oat flakes. Obviously, the Physarum had reached its goal. It had also cheated the labyrinth and ducked under a wall and created a shortcut to the destination. 

Moving on, we folded, cut up and placed several "paper buildings" that created the buildings on the PSU campus. Placing the Physarum where the 4th avenue building would be in our experiment and the oat flakes at the FRINQ classroom, we sealed up our last petri dish and patiently waited for the results. 

Entry 3, Day 3

Life before, the day started with checking the results of the previous experiments. Starting with Challenge1 we opened hoping for much more progress than the little that had been achieved on the first day back. Upon revealing the results, we saw a huge spike in the activity. The Physarum had a much greater web and even broke free of the petri dish. The webbing was also much thicker and more defined. The results were very apparent.

The success was soon followed by a failure, however, when we opened the second challenge's petri dish. Black hold had formed on oat flake that had honey on it and the Physarum had seemingly not spread at all. There was no distance to measure, unfortunately.

Moving on the the next challenge, we took out our maze design and our tin foil. We molded the foil to create a labyrinth for the Physarum to travel through. 

Placing the Physarum pulled from our now highly expansive culture of physarum at one end of the maze, and oat flakes at the other end we sealed it up and awaited the results. 

The final challenge was the next so we had to prepare how to create "buildings" for our "Physarum pathway". after some thought, we decided to choose folded flashcards as our building material. 

Entry 2, Day 2

Arriving with the substances we discussed on the first day, we were ready to start setting up the second challenge. Before starting that, we took a look at the results of the first challenge. With only two days passing, the first challenge didn't quite have enough time to develop it seemed.

The results were difficult to discern, but there was minor webbing occurring from the source of the Physarum. A few of the oat flakes that were untouched, but if we give it more time it should result in further webbing. 

After checking the results, we began to construct the second challenge. Following the same initial steps of the first challenge, we filled the petri dish with agar and took a portion of Physarum and placed it in the center of the petri dish. Next, we created a "map" that measured the distance that the Physarum's webbing would achieve, creating tick marks at every half-inch.

Placing four oat samples each an inch away from the Physarum in the center, we then coated three of them in substances. One was left untouched, creating a control for the experiment. We labeled which substance was which and then covered the petri dish.

Covering it in tin foil just as we did for the first challenge, we labeled it as the second experiment and left it alone until we see it on the following Monday. Finally, we ended the day by preparing for the third challenge. We decided to stick with tin-foil but this time use it for the labyrinth. We planned to create walls with tin foil because it's extremely malleable. We drew up a labyrinth plan and left for the day.

Entry 1, Day 1

Challenge 1: Culture

Culturing the Physarum started by pouring a layer of liquid agar into a petri dish. After placing in the nutrients for the Physarum to absorb, we received a portion of the "mother physarum" in Professor Teuscher's possession. We then labeled the petri dish and closed it.

Wrapping it in tin foil, we then waited for it a larger sample of Physarum to manifest.

Planning for the next challenge, we decided to bring 3 different substances to submerge oat flakes in. We decided upon honey, lemon juice, and salt.