Slime molds could hold key to new varieties of intelligence, help Statue of Liberty walk

See that yellow amoeboid slime mold ? It’s as much as something. A team of Japanese scientists at Future University Hakodate led by professor Toshiyuki Nakagaki has found evidence that physarum polycephalum — or grape -cluster slime — are able to navigating mazes and will organize their cells to search out probably the most direct route. Nakagaki and others believe this can be the important thing to designing bio-computers able to solving complex problems. In accordance with Nakagaki, the slime’s cells seem to have one of those information-processing ability that permits them to “optimize” the route along which the mould grows to succeed in food while avoiding stresses — like light — that can damage them.

Over at Kyushu University, researcher Atsushi Tero told the AFP news agency: “Computers should not so good at analysing the greatest routes that connect many base points for the reason that volume of calculations becomes too large for them. But slime molds, without calculating all of the possible options, can flow over areas in an impromptu manner and gradually find the proper routes.” Tero and other researchers have expressed hope that slime mold networks might be utilized in future designs of recent transportation systems , electric transmission lines and understanding the human nervous system. Just remember, in case you are going to coat the inner of the Statue of Liberty with some pink slime you present in the sewer, you should definitely play some upbeat music to move together with it. It’s only a good idea ultimately.

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This post is tagged: electric transmission lines, future university, human nervous system, information processing, japanese scientists, transportation systems, university researcher