Two Months Later

It's hard to believe that Adam has existed for over two months now. His second month went by so quickly and yielded practically no changes, when compared with the first. If I were to describe Adam's current state, it would practically be a facsimile of the last update posted here. The mixture in Adam's jar is still opaque, viscous, and homogenized. The only minor change that has occurred over the last month is that the crystalline crust seems to have dissolved and the oil spots on Adam's surface aren't as apparent as they once were. I'm certainly not disappointed with Adam's progress or lack thereof, because I do think that, sooner or later, changes will become more apparent.
Something that I've been thinking about doing since the very beginning of this project is creating additional specimens like Adam. Once I decided that I didn't want to tinker around with what I would put into Adam, I considered that I would just follow the same procedures but with different substances. This is what I've ended up doing, more or less, except the experiment isn't just about different materials. Instead, I'm only going to introduce substances to Adam II that I believe are full of bacteria, whereas, with Adam, I've always tried my best to avoid adding bacteria to his environment, letting bacteria form on its own.
Adam II is contained within a jar that has been cleaned and, at one time, housed a spider. There's a small smudge on the inside of the jar, which I'm assuming is some kind of waste/residue that the spider left behind, because nothing else has been inside the jar after it was cleaned. Currently, Adam II is comprised of dead blood and pus, which are the contents of an infected hair follicle, and scrapings from my tongue mixed with saliva. Since pus is probably the only thing harder to harvest than semen, I probably won't be adding anymore of it to Adam II. Rather, I'll be regularly adding saliva and tongue scrapings to the container.
As far as predictions go, I don't really expect to see Adam II develop much faster than his predecessor. Of course, I'm mainly saying this to circumvent disappointment. I'd like to believe that Adam II's bacteria-rich composure will yield interesting/surprising results more quickly than Adam. The main reason why I think that this could be the case is that I've made a hypothesis which states that Adam II already contains bacteria that Adam's contents have yet to/may not ever attract and these bacteria will play a crucial role in creating something that could be interpreted as life.
With history as an indicator, Adam II's beginnings should be full of changes, so updates may be coming frequently once again, as progress occurs.

Adam's first month

I apologize for my prolonged absence. I'm not going to make excuses and say that things got in the way or anything, because that's not the case. The fact of the matter is that the developments just aren't making themselves apparent to me as readily as they once were. In Adam's first month, the changes to his composition and outward appearance have been considerable. But, in the last week or so, seemingly nothing has changed, so I've had nothing to report. That isn't to say that he's the same as he was the last time I updated, there have been some slight changes, and I'll describe them to the best of my ability.

The mixture of semen and blood has changed drastically from its original form. What was once a separated, viscous substance, comprised of fresh-squeezed blood and semen became a grayish, more homogenize mixture. And that mixture turned into a unified, almost colloidal substance, which has become completely opaque.

About a week ago, I noticed that this sort of crust was forming around the perimeter of the container, where Adam touches the edges. In addition to this crystalline crust, there are several small rainbow-colored spots, that look like some sort of oil. I don't know if this is the beginning of the formation of some sort of life form or if it's just some oil from my skin that found its way into the mixture from my blood or semen.
Other than these somewhat minor developments, not much has seemed to change. I can no longer see into the mixture, so whatever is going on beneath the surface is a mystery to me. Considering how much Adam has changed in one month alone, I'm looking forward to seeing what becomes of him in the future. Even if the developments don't match my expectations, I'll be pleasantly surprised by whatever happens.
I'm only going to update as frequently as necessary. If there's nothing to report, I'm not going to waste everyone's time with an update, so just check in sporadically, since my posting will become increasingly erratic as time goes on.

Week 2

I wanted to bring attention to something that I've noticed since the beginning of this experiment. When semen is added to the mixture, it retains its shape, color and structure for only a few minutes. After that, it becomes less opaque and eventually it becomes completely clear. These two pictures were taken only three minutes apart and you can see how, even without being agitated, the semen has started to become clear and is becoming one larger pool, rather than several small pools. If I didn't know better, I would say that this is just what it looks like when semen diffuses into another substance, but this phenomenon also occurred at the very beginning of the experiment, with the first sample of semen, when it had nothing to diffuse into.

I finally decided to test out the microscope and see if I would be able to see anything with it. I crafted a makeshift slide and put a small sample of fresh semen onto it, then observed it at 75x magnification. I certainly was not able to see sperm within the semen and didn't see anything else noteworthy. I also made a separate slide of some of my saliva and wanted to see if I would be able to observe bacteria, but once again, it yielded no positive results.

Besides the rubber band on Adam's container snapping, nothing has changed one way or the other. I've given some thought to the idea of adding caffeine to the mixture, in the hopes that this might speed up the process, but maybe that's far too whimsical of an idea to be worthwhile.

Day 13

Adam is still changing imperceptibly and daily updates would force me to look beyond what is really there and try to concoct some sort of a result. If I'm patient and willing to let Adam develop without my interference, whatever the result ends up being will at least be unadulterated and well-deserved. If I'm going to be patient, that means updates will be much less frequent than they once were, so patience will be required of you as well.

Currently, Adam's most interesting feature is the "structure" that is forming from my blood. It is suspended within the semen and has attached to the globule of mucus. The blood also has either enveloped or dissolved the hair and its root, because I can no longer see it. The blood appears to be clotted and congealed underneath the semen, which has started to change color. I don't know if the semen is beginning to mix with the blood or if it's just getting old and turning yellow. Either way, what was once a heterogeneous mixture of clear/cloudy semen and red blood has become a partially homogenized substance of a translucent, yellowing liquid and a congealed mass suspended in its center.

Other than these small details, there isn't much to report. The volume of the mixture has been the same for a while and it doesn't appear that anything has been lost to evaporation. Within the coming days, if nothing seems to change significantly, I will most likely begin adding a new substance into the mixture. I am favoring ear wax, because it's easy to collect and seems to be the most salubrious substance, having several properties that I think would be beneficial to Adam's development.

I don't exactly know what kind of change I should look for or when I should expect to see it. I simply know that the likelihood of nothing changing significantly within the mixture in the near future is considerable. I'm certainly not going to make any hasty decisions or rash changes, but if I think that something will trigger a change in Adam, which will eventually lead to growth, I'll add it to the current list of procedures/substances.

As always, if there's anything that you would like to suggest I add or change about this experiment, feel free to do so. Additionally, if there's anything that you know about biology/chemistry and think that I too should know it, please share whatever knowledge and insight you've got with me.

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.