If you’ve ever wandered past what looked like a pile of dog barf on a log during a hike in the woods, you’d just seen slime mold - one of the most perplexing organisms on Earth. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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A discussion about the intelligence and behavior of slime mold, which blurs the line between plant and animal, and how it can navigate mazes and even solve problems.
Slime mold, a type of mold that lacks cell walls, is a decomposer that helps break down dead bacteria, molds, and yeast. There's a variety of different kinds of species of slime mold, and some can become very large.
Under stress, individual single-celled slime molds can join forces to become a swarm, making it harder for predators to eat them. These cellular slime molds create a layer of slime that resembles a snail trail and are individually very small making it difficult for predators like specialized beetles to find them.
The hosts discuss identifying slime molds in the forest by their yellowish and orange appearance. Slime molds are harmless and might enter your yard during very rainy and hot days.
Slime molds can essentially sacrifice themselves and move by using little appendages that expand and contract the cytoplasm to make their way along the ground, all without a brain.
Scientists have tested the intelligence of a slime mold, a Physarium polycephalum, to see if it can find the most efficient route between two cities. The results show that the slime mold was able to mimic the Roman roads and find the best route, raising questions about how humans determine the most efficient routes.
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Cellular slime molds are known for their unique group behavior where there are no leaders or pacemakers, but rather a group decision-making process based on signals and proximity to food. This behavior is similar to how flocks of birds make decisions together without a hierarchy.
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Slim Mold Learning encompasses its capacity to form algorithms that move across unsearched territories in search of food, and can teach other slime mold to stay away from it, even in encounters that have never been introduced to it.
Scientists conducted research on slime molds and found that their behaviors in mazes can inform how 37,000 real galaxies in the universe are linked together.
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