Are You Cleverer Than A Slime Mold?

Slime molds are intelligent, but they are single-celled creatures with no brains. How is that possible? ↓ More info and sources below ↓ I really hope you guys check out Deep Look, it’s one of my favorite channels, full of great 4K, micro-world goodness! http://goo.gl/8NwXqt Many thanks to Prof. Andy Adamatzky (UWE Bristol) for slime mold culturing advice. Special thanks to the following for providing Dictyostelium microscope footage: Prof. John Bonner (Princeton) Prof. David Knecht (Univ. of Connecticut) Prof. Richard Firtel (UCSD) Prof. Jeremy Pickett-Heaps (Univ. of Melbourne) References/further reading: “Intelligence in Nature” by Jeremy Narby http://amzn.to/23HvtKG “The Social Amoebae - The Biology of Cellular Slime Molds” by John Bonner http://amzn.to/1MEmmCR Nakagaki, Toshiyuki. "Smart behavior of true slime mold in a labyrinth."Research in Microbiology 152.9 (2001): 767-770. Nakagaki, Toshiyuki, Hiroyasu Yamada, and Masahiko Hara. "Smart network solutions in an amoeboid organism." Biophysical chemistry 107.1 (2004): 1-5. Adamatzky, Andrew. Physarum machines: computers from slime mould. Vol. 74. World Scientific, 2010. Have an idea for an episode or an amazing science question you want answered? Leave a comment or check us out at the links below! Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsokaytobesmart Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/okaytobesmart http://twitter.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Tumblr: http://www.itsokaytobesmart.com Follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/jtotheizzoe Follow on Snapchat: YoDrJoe ----------------- It’s Okay To Be Smart is written and hosted by Joe Hanson, Ph.D. Follow me on Twitter: @jtotheizzoe Produced by PBS Digital Studios: http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsdigitalstudios Music via APM Stock images from Shutterstock http://www.shutterstock.com Stock footage from Videoblocks (unless otherwise noted) http://www.videoblocks.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices