Slime mold solving a maze in the lab

Here, see physarum polycephalum (slime mold) solving a maze in the lab; the mold was more efficient than graduate students at finding the exit route.

For more about the problem-solving power inherent in networks, see "Networked," (May-June 2010)

Via http://harvardmagazine.com/2010/05/networked

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[michalchik]

What is with the sudden jump cut from it spreading out to having solved the optimum path?

[jic1]

OK, having done some more research, here's what's happening: The mold is grown on the maze, and then some food is placed at the entrance and exit. The mold moves towards the food, aligning itself along the most direct route between the two feeding stations. Impressive, although obviously not impressive enough for them to provide a video which clearly shows what is going on...

[MediaFilter]

@akromachan Photoshop flood fill uses the same principle. Any perfect flood fill algorithm will solve a maze if there is a solution; it's not the most efficient method when you have limited time, however.

[Svand6218]

@jic1 Think about it, its a microbe...so how did it determine the most direct route to the food source? Until now, it was believed that microbes could not detect a food source, they just came across them, and moved or spread at random.

[Svand6218]

@Shaft1358 Hahaha! You yourself, and everything living, are nothing more than a complex network of single organisms, called cells, existing in a humongous colony in which each cell has its own purpose in protecting the colony and providing life force, aka energy, for survival.

[Shaft1358]

I agree with Superfix6. This is not intelligence, simply stimulus and response. A plant is not intelligent and cannot "see" the sun, yet it is endowed by its creator with chemicals in its stalk that respond to sunlight to bend the plant in the direction of the light. The mold is attracted to the food - and to the trail of slime that acts as a conduit for food. Eventually the blind alleys retract or die. Hard to believe some "scientists" see this as evidence of "network intelligence." Embarra

[alzorama]

IT'S ALIIIIIIIVE!

[045tonio]

bullshit, it filled all paths :D

[onlywhenpissed]

Steve McQueen dealt with the blob. Same stuff

[BIEBERBRO420]

lame, it grows over the maze walls

[akromachan]

Nah, Photoshop is faster at solving mazes...

[DirtinSky]

err.. looks to me them there mold just filled up the ENTIRE maze~ and that's special why?