By leaving behind gooey deposits (left), Physarum polycephalum "remembers" where it's been.
Photograph courtesy Audrey Dussutour
9 comments:
Erica
said...
This is one of the best articles I have ever read. There wasn't that much writing, but it was very interesting what they had to say. I never knew that slime could have memory. Their memory is very good! I found it interesting researchers placed the slime in a U-shaped trap. On an untreated surface, 96 percent of the specimens were able to steer through the trap to find a sugar solution before the time limit of 120 hours. But when the trap had already been coated with slime, so that the specimens could not distinguish their own trails, only a third of the organisms reached the goal before the time limit and spent ten times longer returning to areas they had already been. I think it is amazing that they can get to their goal using their own slime. I think the reason why they couldn't do it as well with the maze where it was already coated with slime is because Physarum knows its own slime, and it can work as well with a slime it doesn't know. This was very interesting, good, and informative article.
This article surprised me in multiple ways. I was unaware that there was even such thing as a living slime that can actually move. Finding out that it has a memory was especially mind-blowing. It was intriguing how the slime could also find its way out of a "trap" to get food. However, I did not understand why only 1/3rd of the slimes made it out of the trap when it had already been coated in slime. If they simply remembered where they went, what does it matter? Since the cannot see either, what mechanism could they use? It could possibly be a chemical reaction to traces of other slimes that tell them where they went and where other slimes went. It amazed me how a glob of goop is practically an animal without even having any neurons.
This article made me think more deeply about how our brain evolved. If living slime can remember where they went through slime, then we should be able too. But we aren't able too. It is very interesting that this organism can detect its own slime and other Physarum polycephalum's slime trails. It would be a big step in the right direction for humans if we could detect trails of other people in the ground. It would solve lots of problems for the human race. This ability helps Physarum polycephalum alot because they can trace back where they have been and which places are dangerous and such.
This was a great article! At first I was a little confused and wondered how slime mold can have memory without a brain, but then I realized that their memory was their trail. I was wondering; how can the slime sense where its trail is? Slime probably can’t see or smell, so what does it do? Can slime feel its trails? Another thing I wonder is: do other protists have the same kind of “memory” as the slime mold?
I think that the topic of this article was good, but the article itself wasn't long enough or descriptive enough to give me he information that I was hoping for. I did find it cool, though, that slime can figure out where they have been by recognizing their trails that they laid earlier. Since they have no brain, this is extra cool. At first it was surprising to find that they had a harder time navigating the trap when there was other slime on it, but now that I think about it, it's not that surprising.They don't even have brains, so they probably are not very good at telling the difference between 2 kinds of slime. I think that this article should have been more in depth, but it was still cool. I give this article 6 out of 10.
I liked this article. I think it is so cool that something so inanimate in our minds can actually solve a maze or get out of a trap just as well as or better than us. However, I still don't quite understand how they can get out of a trap or through a maze more quickly. I understand that they avoud areas with slime residue on it, but how does this get them to solve a maze with no errors? It was prpbably easier with the U-shaped trap because there is only one path. But I watched a video of the slime navigating a maze perfectly. That didn;t make any sense to me.This part of the article really confused me. I think they should have done a better job at explaining that. On the other hand, I watched the video linked to the article, and it was about a team looking for slime mold in the treetops in a national park. It was interesting to hear what they had to say about the slime. For example, the leader of the group was saying that on their last search, they had descovered a new species of this slime. In the pictures, it was shown as being iridescent. Another interesting thing they mentioned in the video was that they had been looking for new ways to climb the trees as not to damage the tree and the specimins on it in any way. I really loved the video. I would probably rate it an 8.5/10, while I would rate the article a 6.5/10. My main issue with the article is that they didn't supply enough information about how this slime funtioned. I did like the idea of the article. I just thought that the presentation of facts was a bit off.
I found this article very interesting. I never knew that something without a brain could have a memory. Externalized spatial memory seems like a very interesting topic to me. As I was looking for how it works, it was a bit hard to understand how you can remember things without a mind, but I know that they can somehow sense the sugar. I still would like to find out how they sense the chemicals such as glucose in their trail. This almost seems like fiction in the sense that it can use this memory so well that it can get through a maze faster than humans! I agree with this article, yet wish that it could have explained how it works a little more. Overall, this was a surprising and interesting article.
Yet another unbelievable yet true fact! I am profoundly amazed. It's intriguing how instead of containing a brain, evidently equipped with the temporal lobe and the amazing works of visual memory in the hippocampus, the slime uses "externalized spatial memory." Although, I could understand how the spatial memory would work, but then again this is coming from a being with a brain, and not Physarum polycephalum. Would a simple representation of this spatial memorization be something like shutting your eyes and still being able to make your way around your house, for you have lived there for some time? Or is this memory process much more complex if it only occurs in certain types such as Physarum?
I was very intrigued by this article. It is amazing how slime can move through a maze or a trap without overlapping its own trail. I thought that the article did not have enough information, so I researched a bit more and wondered, who would have thought that slime had the potential to be smarter than a human? There was a piece of goo that found the shortest way through a maze without making any mistakes. I wondered if this goo actually has a memory, or if it was just able to detect where it had already gone. Also, how would it know the shortest way through a maze, because in the video I watched, it never went close to other slime. If we can somehow obtain their incredible talent, can we give it in the form of a pill and give it to a human who has a terrible memory? Many people are losing their memory because of age and have almost no way of really getting back their memory. Furthermore, if you put several kinds of food in front of it, then it will make its way towards the healthiest one. Can this slime make better decisions than we can? This slime creates perfect roots wherever it grows, so scientists could create a maze exactly like Los Angeles and put healthy foods at different locations. Then the slime would travel to each food and scientists would then know the shortest course to build roads, subways, and routes of transportation. Can we actually use this to create a better system of transportation? People are also trying to create a device that can be inserted in computers to remember the exact route of electrons, the voltage, and such when it loses battery. When a computer that has such a device turns back on, then it could run perfectly as if nothing happened. Scientists have found that this mold has the ability to remember things just like this imaginary machine. What if one day we could make these ideas come true?
9 comments:
This is one of the best articles I have ever read. There wasn't that much writing, but it was very interesting what they had to say. I never knew that slime could have memory. Their memory is very good! I found it interesting researchers placed the slime in a U-shaped trap. On an untreated surface, 96 percent of the specimens were able to steer through the trap to find a sugar solution before the time limit of 120 hours. But when the trap had already been coated with slime, so that the specimens could not distinguish their own trails, only a third of the organisms reached the goal before the time limit and spent ten times longer returning to areas they had already been. I think it is amazing that they can get to their goal using their own slime. I think the reason why they couldn't do it as well with the maze where it was already coated with slime is because Physarum knows its own slime, and it can work as well with a slime it doesn't know. This was very interesting, good, and informative article.
This article surprised me in multiple ways. I was unaware that there was even such thing as a living slime that can actually move. Finding out that it has a memory was especially mind-blowing. It was intriguing how the slime could also find its way out of a "trap" to get food. However, I did not understand why only 1/3rd of the slimes made it out of the trap when it had already been coated in slime. If they simply remembered where they went, what does it matter? Since the cannot see either, what mechanism could they use? It could possibly be a chemical reaction to traces of other slimes that tell them where they went and where other slimes went. It amazed me how a glob of goop is practically an animal without even having any neurons.
This article made me think more deeply about how our brain evolved. If living slime can remember where they went through slime, then we should be able too. But we aren't able too. It is very interesting that this organism can detect its own slime and other Physarum polycephalum's slime trails. It would be a big step in the right direction for humans if we could detect trails of other people in the ground. It would solve lots of problems for the human race. This ability helps Physarum polycephalum alot because they can trace back where they have been and which places are dangerous and such.
This was a great article! At first I was a little confused and wondered how slime mold can have memory without a brain, but then I realized that their memory was their trail. I was wondering; how can the slime sense where its trail is? Slime probably can’t see or smell, so what does it do? Can slime feel its trails? Another thing I wonder is: do other protists have the same kind of “memory” as the slime mold?
I think that the topic of this article was good, but the article itself wasn't long enough or descriptive enough to give me he information that I was hoping for.
I did find it cool, though, that slime can figure out where they have been by recognizing their trails that they laid earlier. Since they have no brain, this is extra cool. At first it was surprising to find that they had a harder time navigating the trap when there was other slime on it, but now that I think about it, it's not that surprising.They don't even have brains, so they probably are not very good at telling the difference between 2 kinds of slime.
I think that this article should have been more in depth, but it was still cool. I give this article 6 out of 10.
I liked this article. I think it is so cool that something so inanimate in our minds can actually solve a maze or get out of a trap just as well as or better than us. However, I still don't quite understand how they can get out of a trap or through a maze more quickly. I understand that they avoud areas with slime residue on it, but how does this get them to solve a maze with no errors? It was prpbably easier with the U-shaped trap because there is only one path. But I watched a video of the slime navigating a maze perfectly. That didn;t make any sense to me.This part of the article really confused me. I think they should have done a better job at explaining that. On the other hand, I watched the video linked to the article, and it was about a team looking for slime mold in the treetops in a national park. It was interesting to hear what they had to say about the slime. For example, the leader of the group was saying that on their last search, they had descovered a new species of this slime. In the pictures, it was shown as being iridescent. Another interesting thing they mentioned in the video was that they had been looking for new ways to climb the trees as not to damage the tree and the specimins on it in any way. I really loved the video. I would probably rate it an 8.5/10, while I would rate the article a 6.5/10. My main issue with the article is that they didn't supply enough information about how this slime funtioned. I did like the idea of the article. I just thought that the presentation of facts was a bit off.
I found this article very interesting. I never knew that something without a brain could have a memory. Externalized spatial memory seems like a very interesting topic to me. As I was looking for how it works, it was a bit hard to understand how you can remember things without a mind, but I know that they can somehow sense the sugar. I still would like to find out how they sense the chemicals such as glucose in their trail. This almost seems like fiction in the sense that it can use this memory so well that it can get through a maze faster than humans! I agree with this article, yet wish that it could have explained how it works a little more. Overall, this was a surprising and interesting article.
Yet another unbelievable yet true fact! I am profoundly amazed. It's intriguing how instead of containing a brain, evidently equipped with the temporal lobe and the amazing works of visual memory in the hippocampus, the slime uses "externalized spatial memory." Although, I could understand how the spatial memory would work, but then again this is coming from a being with a brain, and not Physarum polycephalum. Would a simple representation of this spatial memorization be something like shutting your eyes and still being able to make your way around your house, for you have lived there for some time? Or is this memory process much more complex if it only occurs in certain types such as Physarum?
I was very intrigued by this article. It is amazing how slime can move through a maze or a trap without overlapping its own trail. I thought that the article did not have enough information, so I researched a bit more and wondered, who would have thought that slime had the potential to be smarter than a human? There was a piece of goo that found the shortest way through a maze without making any mistakes. I wondered if this goo actually has a memory, or if it was just able to detect where it had already gone. Also, how would it know the shortest way through a maze, because in the video I watched, it never went close to other slime. If we can somehow obtain their incredible talent, can we give it in the form of a pill and give it to a human who has a terrible memory? Many people are losing their memory because of age and have almost no way of really getting back their memory. Furthermore, if you put several kinds of food in front of it, then it will make its way towards the healthiest one. Can this slime make better decisions than we can? This slime creates perfect roots wherever it grows, so scientists could create a maze exactly like Los Angeles and put healthy foods at different locations. Then the slime would travel to each food and scientists would then know the shortest course to build roads, subways, and routes of transportation. Can we actually use this to create a better system of transportation? People are also trying to create a device that can be inserted in computers to remember the exact route of electrons, the voltage, and such when it loses battery. When a computer that has such a device turns back on, then it could run perfectly as if nothing happened. Scientists have found that this mold has the ability to remember things just like this imaginary machine. What if one day we could make these ideas come true?
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