THE TEST TUBES



At the lower left of the window is the specimen area.  The specimen area includes 4 test tubes for you to keep specimens of your favorite swimmers, and some buttons for saving and loading specimens.  To store a specimen, click on a swimmer from within the pond and then drag it into an empty test tube.   As you move the swimmer out of the pond, you'll notice your cursor icon changes - this means you are transporting a swimmer into the specimen area.  



This swimmer will then be in a state of suspended un-aging life, as long as it stays in the test tube.  If you load up a new pond, this swimmer will remain in the test tube.  You could then drag the swimmer out of the test tube at any time and place it in the new pond, and see how it survives in a different ecology.  



TEST TUBE ACTIVITIES

You can clone copies of the specimen by holding down the SHIFT key and clicking on the specimen and dragging it out.  The original stays in the test tube and a clone gets dragged out.  You cannot dump a swimmer into a test tube which already has a swimmer in it.  Sorry, only enough Pond water for one occupant at a time!  



Note: if you place a baby swimmer into a test tube, you may have a hard time seeing it there (because it's so tiny!).  Keep this in mind.  



If you are transporting a swimmer from the pond to a test tube or a specimen from a test tube to the pond, and you accidentally drop it in transit, it will automatically snap back to where it was when you picked it up (unless you drop it into an empty test tube).  



SAVING AND LOADING SPECIMEN GENES

Below the test tubes are bent-arrow-shaped buttons for saving a test tube specimen's genes as a file.  To save a specimen, select the button just under the test tube which that specimen occupies.  A dialog box will appear asking you to name the specimen.  Give it a name and select OK.  You now have created a file which holds the genes of that specimen.  



That specimen's genes can be loaded up at any time by going to an empty test tube and selecting its associated "load specimen" button (just above the test tube).  A dialog box will appear asking you the name of the specimen genes you want to load.  Enter the name and that specimen will appear in the test tube.  Darwin Pond comes with some special dna files for you to check out (they can be found in a folder called "DNA").  



You can also move your cursor on top of a test tube and press the right mouse button to get a context-sensitive menu which will allow you to save or load genes.  



NOTE:  only genes are saved in these files.  Mental states, energy levels, and ages are not.  These get set to some pre-determined value whenever you load up a specimen's genes.  