Slime Moulds in the News

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Slime Moulds in the News
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Robot moved by a slime mould's fears

• A bright yellow slime mould that can grow to
  several metres in diameter has been put in charge
  of a scrabbling, six-legged robot.
• The Physarum polycephalum slime, which naturally
  shies away from light, controls the robot's
  movement so that it too keeps out of light and
  seeks out dark places in which to hide
  itself.Klaus-Peter Zauner at the University of
  Southampton, UK, who developed the
  slime-controlled bot with colleagues from Kobe
  University in south-central Japan, says the idea
  is to find simpler ways to control a robot?s
  behaviour.

http//www.newscientist.com/article.ns?iddn8718
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Robot
The slime mould - pictured on the screen in the
experimental set-up - causes a robot to
naturally avoid the light (Image Klaus-Peter
Zauner)
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A-mazing slime moldPhysarum navigates a Maze

• A-mazing slime mold
• In 2000, a team of Japanese and Hungarian
  researchers, writing in the journal Nature,1
  claimed to have found the slime mold Physarum
  polycephalum is capable of finding the shortest
  way through a maze. Pieces of the slime mould
  were enticed through a 30-square-centimetre
  (five-square-inch) maze by the prospect of food
  at the end of the puzzle. The researchers
  concluded that the creature was exhibiting a kind
  of primitive intelligence.

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P. polycephalum in the maze
http//www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/slime_
mold.html