Tales from the Lab: Not all science experiments work as expected…
Back in June, I started an experiment in collaboration with Adrian M. Gibson. He successfully grew mushrooms on a copy of Mushroom Blues last year, and when he found out I’m a microbiologist, he asked if I might be able to grow mold on a copy too. (You can watch a video about Adrian’s mushroom growing here: I grew MUSHROOMS on my BOOK (and then ATE them.)
Mushrooms are fungus. Mold is fungus. In theory, it should have worked.
But here’s the thing about microbes: They often do what they want. And that isn’t always what the scientists in the lab want them to do.
Even under ideal conditions (which, I want to make very clear, my experiment was not conducted under ideal conditions), things don’t always go as planned. Biology isn’t as precise or predictable as, say, chemistry. But anyway, back to the experiment…
It officially began on June 24. I took my paperback copy of Mushroom Blues into work so I could get started.
The original plan was to conduct the entire experiment in the lab there (it was pretty slow this summer for the micro lab, so this wasn’t interfering with anything work-related in case you were wondering. And I got the okay from my manager.) I had to deviate from that plan in mid-July, however.
Due to some previously unforeseen circumstances at work, I moved the whole experiment home in mid-July (I’ll provide details at the end of the post for those interested.) Some of the spores I used to inoculate the book originally got jostled about in transit, but eventually, there were 3 species of the 4 I used that showed growth. Not as much growth as I would have liked, but it was something and not a complete failure.
A couple notes: Because this was not a work-related project, I didn’t have access to the typical growth medium I would have used for other experiments. I didn’t have any on-hand to start with (it was slow at work, as I said), and I couldn’t order anything in for this. Mold is pretty slow to grow on paper, especially in Colorado’s super dry climate, which also impacted things. After I moved the experiment home, I dusted the book with a cornmeal/sugar mixture (to somewhat mimic potato dextrose agar), and it was only after that point any growth occurred. And it wasn’t much.
The species growing on the above image are: Aspergillus brasiliensis (the black mold), Alternaria (the brown mold growing toward the top and around the sides of the book), and Cladosporium (the olive-green mold that is growing near the bottom edge.) The Penicillium species did not show any visible growth.
I learned a couple things with this project. First, mold doesn’t grow as readily as mushrooms do on book-grade paper. And second, it pained me so much to knowingly destroy a perfectly good book and have so little to show for it.
Thankfully, Adrian is a really nice person, and he gave me a replacement copy of Mushroom Blues at WorldCon last week.
And if you’re wondering, WorldCon was so much fun. The photo above is me with Adrian and one of his podcast partners, MJ Kuhn.
This next section is a little bit about what is going on at work and is unrelated to the book mold experiment.
Things at my workplace have been going rapidly downhill since June. We were notified in early June that “significant” changes would be coming, and that we’d know more within 8-12 weeks. Fast-forward to August 5, when we were told layoffs would be conducted soon (on the 26th, which is this coming Tuesday.) The site I work at will be decommissioned, and at this point, I’m just waiting to hear my official end date. For some people, that will be Tuesday, but for others, they’ll be asked to stay on for a few weeks to months longer.
What makes the situation worse is that if we quit before our “assigned” end date, we forfeit the severance package. I’ve worked there for almost 9 years, and I want that package. I just don’t know yet when I’ll be officially done working there, so I can’t exactly interview for other jobs right now. I’ll know when my end date is on Tuesday.