Slime Molds facts
While investigating facts about Slime Molds Characteristics and Slime Molds Examples, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Scientists put slime mold onto a model of a map of Tokyo, with food representing urban centers. After a day, it created a network almost identical to Tokyo’s actual rail network. Human designers created that network to be as efficient as possible; slime mold did the same, but without a brain
how slime molds reproduce?
Brainless slime molds are capable of making complex intelligent decisions and always find the optimal path towards their goal
What are two ways that diatoms differ from slime molds?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering in what way are slime molds similar to kelp. Here are 29 of the best facts about Slime Molds Are Classified As and Slime Molds Classification I managed to collect.
what are slime molds?
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The "pink slime" that sometimes grows in bathrooms isn't a mold, it's actually an airborne bacterium called *Serratia marcescens* that feeds on soap, hence why it thrives in bathtubs.
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Some types of slime mold can solve simple problems such as the shortest path problem. It also shows signs of memory.
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When a species of slime mold was exposed to conditions simulating Tokyo's topography, it formed a copy of the city's railway system.
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A man named Atsushi Tero grew the slime mold Physarum polycephalum in a flat wet dish arranged in the shape of the city of Tokyo. He then used bright light to simulate obstacles in the dish and the slime mold efficiently focused on connected branches that resembled the Tokyo metro system.
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The first use of "Nickelodeon green slime" was actually green mold growing atop a bucket of "cafeteria slop," dumped on a kid during an episode of "You Can't Do That on Television."
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Physarum polycephalum. The yellow slime mold - having no brain or nervous system - can learn, hold memories, make decisions, and solve complex transportation problems.
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Physarum polycephalum, a common yellow slime mold, has over 500 different sexes!
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In 1987 German scientists grew the largest single-cell organism ever: a slime mold with a surface area of 5.5 m² and a weight of 3 kilogramms. They grew the slime mold on oat flakes laid out in a W shape in honor of the director of the institute at the time: Karl–Ernst Wohlfarth–Botterman.
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Slime mold grew a network similar to the Tokyo Rail system - we can learn about efficient networks and routes from mold!
Why slime molds not fungi?
You can easily fact check why slime molds are called false fungi by examining the linked well-known sources.
According to professor John Tyler Bonner, slime molds are "no more than a bag of amoebae encased in a thin slime sheath, yet they manage to have various behaviours that are equal to those of animals who possess muscles and nerves with ganglia – that is, simple brains."
Physarum Polycephalum, a brainless slime mold, is able to solve the Shortest Path problem & the NP-hard Steiner minimum tree problem and also exhibits some form of memory - source
Slime mold is an amoeba that group together forming a multicellular structure to find food with staggering intelligence for a no-brain organism. Slime molds haven been known to solve math problems, find the most efficient way to food, remember it and even anticipate periodic, regulated changes - source
While Atsushi Tero was studying the ability of slime molds to recongeal, he made a small biological model of Tokyo. When the slime molds reformed, they followed a path almost exactly similar to the Tokyo subway.
There is such a thing as Dog Vomit Slime Mold - source
When slime molds move?
Hampshire College has a Visiting Non-Human Scholar, Physarum Policephalum, a plasmodial slime mold.
How slime molds work?
About Myxogastria, a group of slime molds that can have macroscopic cells (cells individually visible to the naked eye)
Fuligo Septica is a species of plasmodial slime mold, which is easily transferred by wind and often grows on compost or bark is AKA DOG VOMIT mold or SCRAMBLED EGG slime mold.
This slime mold is better at civil engineering than the entire nation of Japan