Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

If you have walked through a wooded area that's still damp from a recent rain, you may well have seen a Physarum growing on a tree stump or among the fallen leaves. Members of the genus Physarum are also called slime molds. Slime molds are classified with protists. More than 700 different species of slime molds exist. They have a two-part life cycle. During warm, moist weather, a slime mold lives as a shapeless, growing blob called a plasmodium. The plasmodium may be gray, cream, colorless, bright yellow, or orange. A plasmodium slowly creeps across the ground, moving like an amoeba and consuming bacteria, fungi, and organic debris as it moves. When the environment dries out, the plasmodium transforms into many small, often stalk-like, fruiting bodies that are full of dust-like spores. The tiny spores can remain dormant in the soil for years, waiting for wet weather, at which time they release small, motile (capable of movement) cells. Two motile cells fuse together and grow to become a new plasmodium, starting a new cycle of life.

Because chemotaxis is easy to observe and measure in Physarum, you can investigate various factors that affect it. In this biology science fair project, you will determine how the chemotactic responses of a Physarum polycephalum (P. polycephalum) plasmodium growing in culture depends on the concentration of glucose.

HUGE SCIENCE COMPETITION TOMORROW AND I HAVE TO DO THE ENTIRE POWERPOINT ON THIS. I HAVE THE RESULTS BUT I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM AT ALL! HOW CAN THIS PROJECT BE APPLIED TO SOCIETY?!!! PLEASE HELP AND I WILL SELL YOU MY SOUL JUST PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ml#summary THIS IS THE LINK

I ATTACHED MY POWERPOINT SO FAR PLEASE PLEASE HELP BUT THEY WOULDN'T LET ME SO IF THERE'S ANY WAY I COULD LET YOU TAKE A LOOK AT IT PLEASEEE

if you visit the link, you will get the gist of my entire science project
basically, my main questions are:

1. what should the hypothesis be?
2. how can this experiment be applied to society?

Hello waefdewafwavcewa,

I see that your due date is passed, but I wanted to ensure you got a response to your question. Chemotaxis is important for many things, including responses in your immune system. Take a look at the entry on chemotaxis in an encyclopedia, and you will find out much more about why chemotaxis matters.

Remember that a hypothesis is your educated guess. There is no one "right" hypothesis for this project. Take a look at this Science Buddies article about formulating a hypothesis for more details:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... esis.shtml