Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

We're three 10th grade girls and we're growing physarum polycephalum in a maze for our science project. We got the project idea from this site. They were doing fine until today, when we checked on them and they were covered in a white fuzzy growth. Can this be fixed? What is it? Our teacher said it was probably contamination but that would have to be from the air as we did not touch it or let it be contaminated in any other way. What can we do?
Thanks!

Hi chanchavmir,

It was contaminated from something in the air or by some other conditions (like it was too moist inside the maze). The thing about growing plants like that is that you should have a constant flow of air inside the maze or near the maze (like a light breeze from a fan) so that you can initiate some type of sterile conditions.

To kill the fungus, you can use apple cider vinegar (add 1 tablespoon of it in about 1 cup of water) or milk (just a little bit) to kill the fungus. The problem is you won't be able to kill the spores, but if you keep the environment rather dry and use a constant flow of air, you should be fine in controlling the fungus problem in the future.

Hope that helps!

-Sam