Good news: for the Solo, Classic, and Discovery kits, the strain is a free choice, at the same price. The Blob Lab Kit, however, comes with both strains automatically (2 sclerotia of each, for a total of 4) — no choice to make. Here is how to choose yours for the other 3 kits.
🚀 Major Tom — the space strain
Physarum polycephalum (LU352). Our hero strain: the exact strain that CNES sent to the International Space Station in 2021 for the educational project "Raise your blob." A useful reminder for when your child asks: Thomas Pesquet did not take the blobs with him — he took off on April 23, 2021, without them. The 4 sclerotia joined him via the Cygnus cargo ship on August 12, and he woke them up on September 2, 2021. On the ground, about 4,500 schools had applied, and ~2,000 were selected to experiment in parallel.
- Coloration: bright, vibrant yellow
- Speed: vigorous network
- Ideal for: beginners, or for telling the space story
🌏 Australian Physarum polycephalum — the isolate from the other hemisphere
An isolate of the same species, collected in the Southern Hemisphere. Behavior just as fascinating.
- Coloration: golden yellow
- Speed: vigorous network
- Ideal for: supplementing Major Tom if you want to compare two isolates of the same species
Which strain should you choose as a gift?
For the kits that allow a choice, Major Tom is the most "tellable" — the strain sent to the ISS resonates with all children. It is the default strain for our School project, for the same reason.
Can you compare both strains live?
Yes, that is one of the benefits of the Blob Lab Kit — it includes both strains automatically (2 sclerotia of each, for a total of 4). You can wake them up in parallel to compare coloration, speed, and exploration style, then set them off in the 2-entry maze for the strain race — a Major Tom and an Australian starting at the same time toward the oats placed in the center.
Can they fuse along the way? In Physarum polycephalum, genetic compatibility depends on 3 loci (720 possible combinations) — two plasmodia having at least one common allele can fuse; otherwise, they coexist without harmful reactions. There is no public data on Major Tom vs. Australian compatibility: that is precisely what you can discover yourself by observing.
