Smile Moulds
After spending the past half hour procrastinating by reading about slime moulds, I now feel compelled to spend a further half hour blogging about them, for you see slime moulds are cool. Really cool.
As anyone who's read the relevant Bill Bryson book will attest, slime moulds are curious things. They live most of their lives as individual single-celled organisms, but when the time is right they join forces to form one giant macroscopic 'slug' which oozes through the undergrowth at speeds of up to 2cm per minute. After devouring enough bacteria and leaving a wake of goo, the communal blob then grows a stalk, terminating in a fruiting body which spews forth spores (the slime world's equivalent of hanky panky).
The fascinating thing about these guys, despite the sheer disgusting gooeyness of it all, is how the individual cells, which start off as completely autonomous organisms, come to form one collective, erm... thing. I suppose the question of whether the slug they form can be considered an organism in itself is academic, as these guys are really just a load of chemical reactions taking place, as opposed to fully conscious beings (some may argue there is no clear distinction here, but that's beyond the scope of this blog!). Nevertheless you have to marvel at how simple chemical processes can produce such complex behaviour.
Some vital slime mould facts:
I hope this post will encourage some of you to take up this fine hobby of reading about slime moulds instead of doind work.
As anyone who's read the relevant Bill Bryson book will attest, slime moulds are curious things. They live most of their lives as individual single-celled organisms, but when the time is right they join forces to form one giant macroscopic 'slug' which oozes through the undergrowth at speeds of up to 2cm per minute. After devouring enough bacteria and leaving a wake of goo, the communal blob then grows a stalk, terminating in a fruiting body which spews forth spores (the slime world's equivalent of hanky panky).
The fascinating thing about these guys, despite the sheer disgusting gooeyness of it all, is how the individual cells, which start off as completely autonomous organisms, come to form one collective, erm... thing. I suppose the question of whether the slug they form can be considered an organism in itself is academic, as these guys are really just a load of chemical reactions taking place, as opposed to fully conscious beings (some may argue there is no clear distinction here, but that's beyond the scope of this blog!). Nevertheless you have to marvel at how simple chemical processes can produce such complex behaviour.
Some vital slime mould facts:
- Some slime moulds can reach over a metre in diameter.
- Slime moulds can occasionally be found venturing into gardens on rainy nights.
- A species of beetle which feeds on slime moulds had been named after President George W. Bush
- Slime is an anagram of smile, which is what I do when I think of slime moulds.
- In the outtakes of This is Spinal Tap, singer David St. Hubbins expounds the wonders of slime moulds.
I hope this post will encourage some of you to take up this fine hobby of reading about slime moulds instead of doind work.
posted by Cħarlie at
1:55 pm
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