Yellow Slime Mold May Hold Key To Intelligent Bio-Computers

Posted 12/29/2011 at 11:41am | by Brad Chacos

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Quantum computing isn’t the only nifty next-gen PC advancement scientists are all a-flutter about; there’s plenty of attention being focused on intelligent bio-computers made from organic materials, too. A Japanese scientist by the name of Toshiyuki Nakagaki thinks that he’s found just the organism that can make it possible, too: amoeboid yellow slime mold. That’s right, the nasty goop covering downed trees and leaves is actually a pretty intelligent little bugger that could one day be designing transportation routes and electrical grids. Man, science is cool – and weird.

The simple slime mold shows a simple sort of information processing in the way it finds food. The organism is able to identify and move in an optimized path towards its food sources, a path that avoids stress-inducing stimuli – such as light and temperature changes -- while otherwise reaching the target as directly as possible. Even modern day computers can’t choose optimized paths as efficiently as slime mold, another researcher – Atsushi Tero of Kyushu University – told AFP.

"Computers are not so good at analysing the best routes that connect many base points because the volume of calculations becomes too large for them,” he says. "But slime molds, without calculating all the possible options, can flow over areas in an impromptu manner and gradually find the best routes… They can even create networks that are resistant to unexpected stimulus.”

In Tero’s slime mold studies, the icky organism naturally created a railway pattern that is remarkably similar to the existing rails found in the Kanto region of Tokyo, which is kind of exciting – in a gross way. Other scientists think that slime mold could help us better understand the way the human nervous system works. I for one, plan on welcoming our new hyper-efficient slime mold overlords with open arms.