In this festive and seasonal science experiment, Andi gets to show its likes and dislikes for differently flavored agar substrates.
The white, green, and bright red fields are made of agar with ‘vanilla powder’, sourced from an Asian supermarket. In addition, the bright red agar contains the colorant E124 and the green agar contains E102 & E133.
The dark red fields are made of unflavored agar mixed with the syrup of cherries on syrup. Which according to the label contains cherries, sugar, and water.
Andi crawls over the white, green, and bright red agar with abandon, but initially avoids the dark red agar. Does the sugar draw too much liquid from its body? Later, it will navigate these patches just fine. Maybe by then the surface of these patches has changed by drying out, or by being overgrown with microscopic organisms.
Some three days into the experiment, uninvited moldy guests arrive who are made to feel welcome at the table. The green mold is very taken with the dark red, sugary, cherry syrup substrate; the white mold likes oats. Andi tries to eat the dinner guests; it engulfs the green mold first, but gets deflected. The white mold however is not so lucky, it gets eaten, and eaten again.
There must be some sort of Christmassy moral vignette in this, but I just can’t seem to put my finger on it.
