A New Hope

At the risk of sounding as if I seriously misjudged the date of Star Wars Day, I have a new hope.

Bugger the tomato and butter mould. The blue cheese mould has...sort of paled? I can't tell if it actually grew or not, maybe by a millimetre.

But THANK YOU gran, for going overseas and leaving your wholemeal bread in teh fridge where no one could see it... There's a mould zoo on that thing.


The mould I was looking for.


Strange fluff between the slices.


My working station. I've adopted the method of blue cheesemakers; I'm taking a pinch of mould and pressing it into a depression/hole on the bread.

Now grow, my precious, GROW!

As soon as I have a nice colony (thus proving that mould can be transplanted) I'll start my Experiment. Also, thank you gran for leaving behind an empty unit complete with fridge and freezer and pantry.

Cheese

I threw out the bakery cheese. The smell got to me.

I've dug a pair of tweezers into Danish blue cheese, and pressed what I removed into a slice of bread. My research just says, "At some point, the mold population on the cheese grows to a point where there is nowhere for new spores to latch on to both food and oxygen; the aging process slows to a stop," so I assume they just package and sell. I'm not sure how reliable a website such as this is, though: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5270633_cheese-mold-growing-process.html

I've also found some black tomato mould, which Mum says started off as white-green (in her wisdom as a family cook... O_o). It didn't look like normal 'furry' mould, more like a black spot. I scraped it off and put in on some bread. Hope aren't high for this one.

Mum just found some grey mould on the butter, which I've also extracted and put on a slice of bread.

Not only that. I've got a small amount of pho noodles in its own plastic bag, with those three aforementioned bags, on that shelf.

Stupid how I encounter this problem, really. I can't the mould I wanted! In fact, I haven't witnessed the visible expansion of any mould colonies yet. Mould needs food, oxygen, darkness and moisture. I've given all the trials bread, holes in their bags, a high pantry shelf. Maybe I'd better start watering them and sprinkling sugar over them too or something.

NB. Will upload photo as soon as the SD card gets sorted out. Apparently the computer can't read a 32 gig card...or something...

I think I'm beyond caring about this SRP.

...

Yeah. I am.

Climate Graph

...You don't care about my Europe holiday, do you? You don't care that Goofy kissed me in Hong Kong... You don't care that I am way too jetlagged to do this and the fluid still hasn't gone out of my calves. :(

This is what you want, isn't it? This THING!



I might as well explain my method in more detail too. It's easier for me to use plain English to communicate instead of Step 1 and 2 ect. so I'm going to do that now.

It has been stated on Wikipedia that mould will enter a dormant, non-growing state when conditions do not allow growth. One of these conditions is temperature; between 4 to 38 degrees Celsius is the ideal growing rate. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold and http://www.realtor.org/realtororg.nsf/pages/moldfaq

My hypothesis is that the lower the temperature is (ie. the colder), the slower mould will grow (perhaps not at all). My aim is to find out whether the above statement, as well as my hypothesis, is true.

Right now I have a small handful of cheese (thanks, my aunt-who-owns-a-bakery-in-Mortdale) inside a plastic bag, sitting on a shelf in my dark pantry. After school I basically come home and handle it. I can't remember if bacteria helped food to mould or not, but I'm trying to help it along; there are little spores floating around everywhere and I must have SOME on my hands. Since mould also needs oxygen, I've cut little hole in the bag. Since it also needs moisture, I cough and breath into it as well. It smells dreadful and feels utterly disgusting. I hope that mould grows soon. If this fails -it is bakery cheese, so it may have more preservatives than supermarket cheese- I shall buy some blue cheese to obtain my penicillium.

(Note: Research if/how cheesemakers stop the mould from spreading on blue cheese once it is ready for sale and consumption. If they don't, we'd be eating more mould than cheese. That would be stupid.)

Just to make sure my mould can reproduce and spread, I'll tweezer a sample onto one slice of bread. If the mould grows, I'll transfer equal amounts onto fifteen slices of bread. Five will remain at room temperature. Five will go into the fridge, at 4 degrees, the edge of survivability. Five will go into the freezer, beyond the point of possible growth. I've mentioned the zip lock bags, haven't I?

Each day I'll check on them, possibly take photos, and measure the area of bread covered by mould. I'll do this with either a transparent square centimetre grid, or if the mould grows concentrically I'll use a pair of compasses and the pi x r squared formula. I know this is rough, but what choice do I have? Tables will be filled in. Quantitaive graphs will be created.

I'm not sure how FAST the mould will grow, so the duration of my experiment is TBA. I'm stuck with this project anyway. But I do believe I have things under control.

You still don't want to hear about the Italian guitarist and the French guy stalker photo and Disneyland? Right.

Being Nerdy - Source reccomendation to all of youse

Looks nice, eh? Not only that, it PROVES...er, HELPS the validity of my research topic. I need data that is measurable, and that concentrically-moulded pear has lifted my hopes. (Come on, Ms Zhang...you can't stop me now...I've written half the introduction already...Anthony Warlow fan to Anthony Warlow fan? :3 )

My Dad keeps bugging me to ask the school library to subscribe to New Scientist. The stuff they discover is brilliant. I may not always understand the jargon, but I like New Scientist anyway. Especially articles on the animal/human psyche. :D

I remember reading this article a while ago: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14119184.300-still-life-in-mouldy-bread-two-biologists-studying-a-bread-mould-from-a-small-town-in-texas-discovered-clues-to-the-evolution-of-modern-life-from-its-most-primitive-beginnings.html

It provides the vague connection between mould and other organisms I need to justify my experiment! Muahahaha!!!

Seriously. If you need a non-internet source, check out New Scientist. Do it. Right now. It makes you feel so, so amazingly nerdy. XD

Anthony Warlow remains the fine Captain of the Pinafore. There are still no turtles.

Panicky Pre-Marking Attempt To Boost Marks 1.0

1. I've got four/five solid internet sources. I tried looking for more but they all said basically the same thing, and they're not exactly what I'm looking for. A lot of websites focus on "mould-related health hazards" and "how to get rid of mould in the home". I did find a website that helped you identify what type of mould you have, though. It turns out that the green-blue-white mould I've seen on pizza cheese and peaches (my intended source) is penicillium, AKA the antibiotic source and the genus from which "yummy" cheese moulds come. Will go to library tomorrow for books.

2. I feel all right with my proposed method. Though I may bump up the number of bread slices to give a wider range of results. Four or five slices for each condition, maybe. Also, I'm going to check the mould every day and document the area of spreading. I smell graphs... Another thought. Should I do anotehr trial with another mould species? Though from what I got of the webpage, the black moulds are particularly unhealthy. I'll see if I can find the emerald green mould in the bathroom or something...

Variables
Variables to be controlled:

• Growing ground for the mould; the bread slices will be taken consecutively from the centre of the same loaf so that the bread is the same age, consists of the same ingredients and subject to the same cooking method.
• Period of growing and time of analysis.
• Mould source/species of mould (may do another species other than penicillium)

Independent variable:

• Temperature of surroundings during test period.

Dependent variable:

• Growth rate of mould during test period.

IS THIS HALF-HEARTED ENOUGH?

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~Arthur C. Clarke

"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." ~Gregory Benford

"There are no turtles anywhere." ~Ponder Stibbons

Small Step

...Okay, I've actually done some Googling on mould in general and how temperature affects the growth of mould. It turns out that some girl from America has done something like this before. She has an entire webpage about her mouldy bread. BUT my aim is different to hers. She focused on the bread; I'm going to be thinking more about the mould itself, delightful little microscopic unicellular asexual/sexual organisms they are...

By next weekend, I plan to have read aforesaid Googled pages...

The week after that, I plan to have done the introduction, maybe.

And then I'll forget about it for two months, and get all panicky and stressed out and sleep-deprived like everyone else.

I actually should be working faster than everyone else since I'm leaving for a six week holiday soon. When I return in May I'll start growing the mould. By the end of June I should have finished all the writing bits.

...

Oh bollocks.

"There are no turtles anywhere."

The Possibilties of Mould

I would LOVE to do a project on evolution, psychology, or deep space... As it is, my best idea so far is fungus.

How To Kill Mould
with different temperatures

Step 1. Extract sample of mould. (Will probably come from pizza cheese or a peach; they are reliable sources in my experience.)
Step 2. Carefully grow mould onto nine slices of bread -as similar as I can get. Leave for five days until about equal growths of mould are seen on all the slices.
Step 3. Place three of the slices into the freezer (each in separate plastic freezer bags to protect surrounding food), three into the fridge, and the remaining three in room temperature conditions as a control.
Step 4. Examine differences in the rate of growth after a further five days.

I wanted to see how heat would affect mould, but due to recent spikes in electricty and gas costs I can't exactly leave the oven on for a week.

I've done some research today. Apparently:
1. Heat is often recommened to kill mould. Above 60 degrees Celcius would do.
2. Lukewarm conditions will allow the bacteria to grow faster.
3. Cold temperatures will not kill the bacteria, but will stop it from growing.
4. When temperature does not allow growth, mould can live in a dormant state before dying.
5. Different mould species very enormously in their tolerance of temperature and humidity.

"Moulds produce through spores, which can be asexual or sexual. Many species can produce both types, and many are able to survive extremes of temperature and pressure."

Still sounding good...?

"There are no turtles anywhere." ~Ponder Stibbons