Week 1

Within Adam's first week of development, I have seen lots of changes. The most notable change is the volume of the mixture. Little by little, Adam's volume is growing and that's just how I expect the developments to introduce themselves to me. If you consider organic growth, it is a very slow process. Maybe slow isn't the right word. Deliberate and subtle more accurately describe the way in which things develop naturally over time. Consider your own growth. Consider how long it takes to grow your hair out or to grow at all. From day to day, you don't notice many changes. This is the same reason why a human fetus's growth is recorded in terms of weeks or months rather than days. These small changes translate to an infinitesimal daily growth. I'm not making excuses for Adam's apparent lack of development, I'm merely trying to explain why it may seem like nothing is changing. These things take time and since I intend to let Adam grow with a minimal amount of human interference, it may take a lot of time. All I'm asking from you, as a reader, is to be patient and try to stay curious because it is becoming quite clear that this experiment is going to take a long time to yield any worthwhile results. I intend to continue with what I'm doing for at least 9 months and I'll continue past that, if I feel that I should.

Now that I'm done explaining why there are no big developments, I can begin to describe the small developments. The globule of mucus is most definitely still intact (slightly visible in this picture, the arrow points to the globule that I'm talking about), although the small hair that it was originally attached to is no longer a part of it, and the pool of suspended blood does seem to be clinging to it. I was surprised to find that, after two days, the mixture had not become completely homogenized. I don't think this is a bad sign, though. In fact, I think that this may be a sign of development. What starts out as a homogenized mixture should begin to separate into distinct parts once development occurs, just like how most living creatures are composed of several organelles and structures rather than just one unifying substance. I'm not saying that Adam is already a complex enough organism to be forming organelles, I'm simply suggesting that what I'm seeing could be an indication of the very earliest stages of the developments of new life.

I'm once again postponing looking at Adam under a microscope. The mixture still isn't homogenized and the volume isn't hearty enough to spare samples from the different substances. Although, I have been informed that I will be able to see very basic lifeforms at a magnification of 75x, so this gives me hope for when I finally do decide to make slides and take a closer look at Adam.

I hate to be so apologetic about everything, but I realize how unimpressive this must all seem, especially considering how quickly things seemed to be changing in the beginning. I hope that no one is discouraged by my findings. All I can do is learn from my mistakes and understand that patience is going to be a very big part of the development of this experiment. My imagination still keeps me inspired enough to continue in spite of this and I hope that everyone interested can bear to stay curious for as long as it takes.

New Developments

I feel a mite foolish. All of my suppositions about the liquids diffusing and homogenizing over the course of a few hours have been proven wrong. As you can see in the picture, all of the blood that I added yesterday seems to have pooled together at the bottom of the container. Strangely, there is enough blood to cover the entire bottom but a portion of the blood remains suspended within the mixture of older blood and semen. Also, I think that I may have been wrong about the mucus dissolving. I can't be too certain because the mixture is extremely cloudy, but it looks like my original hypothesis was correct: there still appears to be a cloud of something forming around the mucus. The globule that I'm observing is impossible to photograph because it has formed below the surface of the mixture. What I hadn't considered is that when I first added semen to the container, there was already dried blood inside it. The fresh blood apparently reacts differently to the semen than the dried blood did.

Because of this observation, I have decided not to look at Adam under a microscope yet. Right now, there are several elements (the semen, which accounts for most of the volume, the blood below the semen and the globule of mucus) within the mixture and to get an accurate picture of what is going on within the mixture, I would have to extract and look at each substance separately. Considering the fact that Adam's volume is quite low right now, it may be disruptive to his growth to take samples of each substance. So, I've decided to leave Adam alone for two days. I'm not going to add or take anything away from Adam until January 27th. I'm hoping that the mixture will be closer to being homogenized, if I stop adding new blood and semen for a while. If, after two days, the mixture appears to be better combined, I will extract a single sample and look at it under a microscope. If there is no noticeable difference in the homogeneity of the mixture, I will continue to add fresh blood and semen to the container regularly, building up the volume to a point where it would not be harmful to extract and observe a sample of each substance individually.

If anything interesting happens between now and the 27th, I'll write about it. If not, I will return on Sunday with my findings.

Day Five

I've acquired a microscope. As far as I can tell, the lenses for the higher magnifications are too dirty to see through or broken beyond repair. The only lens that is working is the 75x magnification lens. Is this even close to being strong enough to see anything that might possibly be alive within the mixture? If I take the time to put together a slide and then view it at 75x, how likely is it that I'll be able to see something of interest?

More semen has been added to the mixture as well as several drops of blood, which amounted to approximately 1 mL. I am pleased to see that Adam's overall volume has been steadily increasing and little to no volume has been lost due to evaporation.

There are two interesting observations that should be pointed out, since the pictures I take don't really show Adam's development completely. First, the small blob of mucus that I had once believed was acting as a sort of nucleus for Adam has all but disappeared. I'm assuming that it has been dissolved in the mixture along with the cloudy strands that were forming around it and that I hadn't destroyed its growth in some way. Secondly, I find it curious that everything I put into the mixture retains its shape and color for quite some time. After several hours, the whole mixture is once again homogenized and one element is not discernible from another within the translucent, orange goulash. Is this an indicator of the development of life? Is it safe to assume that something living is absorbing the different substances or is it simply the result of several liquids being combined into one?

This project is continually proving itself to be simultaneously stimulating and satisfying. I hope that reading about my experiences is equally interesting.

Ear wax

Would adding ear wax to Adam's mixture be at all beneficial? As far as I know, ear wax does contain lipids in addition to some sort of cholesterol, but I also know that ear wax has antibacterial and anti fungal properties. So while I think there might be something in ear wax that would be good for Adam, I don't want to kill whatever may already be growing.

Fresh air and progress?!

I think it's safe to say that most, if not all, living things on Earth need oxygen to survive.I had left the container uncovered for about a day prior to sealing it and noticed that a lot of volume was lost to evaporation. After this discovery, Adam's container had been sealed for 23 hours of the day, being exposed to new air only when something was being added to the mixture. Needless to say, I was between a rock and a hard place. I would either deprive Adam of oxygen or be forced to lose him to evaporation. Instead, I took a reader's advice and put a small straw through the lid and into the container. This way, Adam will get at least some fresh air and won't dry up and die.I may be getting ahead of myself here and it may just be wishful thinking, but I would swear that I can see something taking shape in the middle of the mixture. It's hard to see in pictures and I did my best to capture it, but it looks like an opaque cloud is beginning to form around the little blob of mucus in the center of the container. It could just be remnants of my saliva or semen, but I'd at least like to think for a while that there could be some sort of protein forming, using the mucus as a nucleus.

New Blood

Blood is rather hard to come by.
I don't think it would be wise to cut myself in order to draw blood for Adam and I hardly ever have nosebleeds.
I decided to get blood painlessly from my gums.

I brushed my teeth and cleaned my mouth thoroughly. To avoid contaminating my blood with bacteria from my saliva, I then rinsed my mouth with hydrogen peroxide, isopropyl alcohol and hot water. Once my mouth was as sterile as possible, I flossed until my gums bled and spit into the container. I didn't want to add saliva to the mixture, but I felt that it was time to give Adam some fresh blood, since the older blood had been in there for a few days.

I'm going to sleep now, with Adam by my side, and tomorrow I'll be setting up his straw ventilation system.

The project so far

As of right now, Adam consists of the following: several teaspoons of blood & semen, one hair with its root still intact, and a bit of mucus, all inside a sealed container, which is kept between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
I supply the container with fresh blood whenever I'm able and introduce new sperm into the mixture as often as possible. In the near future, I plan to set up some sort of ventilation for Adam. The easiest method was suggested to me earlier and that would be a straw going down into the container through the cover, to give Adam fresh air without worrying about combating evaporation.

My goal is to create some sort of life from this mixture, be it simply mold. I would like even more for something more unique and alive to result from this experiment, but I realize that the likelihood of this happening is quite low.

I chose blood and semen as the base for Adam's development because I believe these materials to be the most heavily-imbued with my essence. I chose not to include waste, such as urine, feces, saliva, dead skin, and fingernails because these are all not living and are not as potent or as crucial in the life-creating process. Also, I will not include waste because those materials will introduce more bacteria than I'd like into Adam's environment.

For now, this is all that there is to the project. As always, feedback is welcome. Let me know what you think of this project and how you think I could make it better. I would also be interested in your predictions.

I hope that this has made what I'm doing a bit more clear to you all.

Also

Leave comments on this blog often.
I'm not saying this because I want you to feed my ego, but I'm asking you to do this because I'm very interested in what other people think about what I'm doing here. The philosophical and existential implications of my little project are numerous.
Plus, I'd like to know how many people actually are interested in what I'm doing.

Suggestions on how to improve the project are always welcome, just don't get offended if I choose not to carry out what you've suggested. This experiment is a personal endeavor and, even though I'm letting the world watch as it unfolds, the decisions are still being made by me.

Incept date: 1/19/08

48 hours in the making.
The beginning of the beginning.

What you see here is a container full of what makes me me.
I'm also hoping that this jar will help to make someone else someone else.
This project is in its infancy and so far has yielded practically no results.
But, with this sort of experiment, time is a huge factor.

I hate to be so cryptic, but as of right now, if you're here, you know just as much as I do about this project.
Besides, there isn't much to know, other than life.
And we all know plenty about that.
So for now, all I'm asking for is your patience. Bear with me and check back as often as you like, for updates on my son, Adam.