The Mary Sue

Electrocute Slime Mold Long Enough and It’ll Apparently Make Music

by Steven Romano Dec 12th

With enough time and patience, research has proven that you can get slime mold -- specifically Physarum polycephalum -- to do pretty much anything you want it to, such as finding its way out of simple mazes and other talents that make you forget the little critter doesn't even have a brain to begin with. Recently, man's obsession with slime mold has led them to once again test the capabilities of Physarum polycephalum, namely whether or not it's able to produce sound. And as it so happens to turn out, you pump enough electricity into the slime mold and they'll, in a fashion, start to produce "music." That is, of course, if you find its tiny, anguished screams of pain melodious.

For the First Time, Creature Without Brain Demonstrates Memory

by Ian Chant Oct 9th

The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is not traditionally regarded as exactly the brightest of life forms. Much of this perception has to do with the fact that a slime mold is a single-celled organism that has no brain or neural structure, which is really a pretty solid reason not to give a creature much credit in the intellect department. Despite this, though, slime mold has proven surprisingly capable of solving simple tests and mazes in lab settings. Now, researchers have even uncovered evidence that the mold doesn't need a brain to demonstrate that it uses memory as a problem solving tool, a feat you can check out in a video after the break.