Lowly slime molds are helping us map out the cosmos
Simulations and observations suggest that if you zoom out enough, the universe looks something like this. (Volker Springel/Max Planck Institute For Astrophysics/SPL/)Slime molds don’t think, but they can calculate. The single-celled organisms fend for themselves during times of plenty, but when the going gets tough they band together into a collective creature displaying exploration, learning, and memory in its hunt for food—not bad for creatures without brains or nervous systems. One variety in particular, Physarum polycephalum, has become a darling of researchers in many fields, who’ve harnessed its pioneering nature to analyze everything from ancient roads to modern shoppers. Now, astronomers have designed a digital version of the organism to study the cosmos itself. “Not only are they not animals or plants, they aren’t even fungi. They’re protists, a simpler form of life,” says Joseph Burchett, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-author of the new...