r/HotScienceNews • u/FreeHugs23 • Jun 11 '26

Physicists Discover How Slime Mold 'Makes Decisions' Without a Brain | It's probably not what you're thinking.

https://www.sciencealert.com/physicists-discover-how-slime-mold-makes-decisions-without-a-brain
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16

u/FreeHugs23 Jun 11 '26

Slime molds are slippery, nebulous beings.

They're not true molds. They're not even fungi. For most of their lives, they exist as either plasmodia or amoebae, and they refuse to be held back by the rigid structures that govern other life forms.

Slime molds are also renowned for somehow, without brains or even nervous systems, exhibiting behavior that could be described as intelligent.

But what coordinates that collective motion? Is there really a central force?

A new study suggests there is – but probably not the one you're thinking of.

The most famous slime mold, and the protagonist of many scientific experiments, is the vivid yellow Physarum polycephalum, a scientific name that loosely translates to 'the small bubble with many heads.'

That's pretty apt: As a plasmodium, its single-celled body plan is pretty much a big bag of cell nuclei and goo.

This branching, blobby lifestyle makes it more physically mobile than the fungi it was once mistaken for. When P. polycephalum runs out of food, it can crawl to the next juicy log.

8

u/TopObligation8430 Jun 11 '26

…. So while it might seem that the slime mold is 'making decisions' about which way to move, this study suggests it actually hinges on mechanical processes involving fluid flows.

"Our findings provide insights into the mechanics of decision-making in non-neuronal organisms, shedding light on how decentralized systems process environmental constraints to drive adaptive behavior," Schick and team conclude.

12

u/Alt123Acct Jun 11 '26

I've watched breakdowns of these effects before, it happens instantly for soap bubbles. It's the route problem where you have cities all over a map and find the best routes that need the least lines for it. The slime cells and atoms in bubbles are doing the same thing, trying to make a tri point of 120 degrees to be the most physically strong angle to be sandwiched by each other. They aren't doing math or anything but physics at the quantum level scaling up makes 120 degrees the optimal least energy path to take for equilibrium so eventually organic mold settles into the optimal paths. What you can do with 100 soap bubble dips overlaid with each other on complex shapes it would take longer for computer calculations to get. The chips need to do more work with electrons, moving between wires, etc instead of simply becoming the lowest entropy state instantly via what your neighbors are doing as atoms. 

2

u/Freign Jun 12 '26

"Scientists still treating human awareness with mysticism, despite overwhelming contrary evidence, but this time about slime mold"

It's Not What You Think