Can Slime Mould Solve Mazes? | Earth Science

We think of mould as a simple organism, but it's a fungus that can perform cleaver tricks to get to its objectives.

After Life: The Science of Decomposition
Imagine an average family kitchen. The fridge and cupboards are well stocked. There are flowers on the side. There's even a dead mouse in a cupboard and flies gathering above the fruit bowl. Over a period of three months, this film reveals the incredible science of taphonomy, following what happens to the organic matter in this kitchen as it starts to decompose. Beautifully shot, After Life is a journey through the heart of decay - from the towering branches of Aspergillus mould that sprouts from the surface of an orange to the spread of slime mould across a loaf of bread.
Welcome to BBC Earth Science! Here we answer all your curious questions about science in the world around you (and further afield too). If there’s a question you have that we haven’t yet answered let us know in the comments on any of our videos and it could be answered by one of our Earth Science experts.

[pooky]

To be fair, the slime mold does not have to consider factors like geography, commute patterns, peak traffic flow rates, noise control regulations, etc. But the emerging structure is amazing nevertheless!

[celtgunn]

I've seen other video on this mould, it truly would have been spectacular to see a longer video. I love to learn.

[MrDowntemp]

The topics this channel brings up are always super interesting but they are always way too short!

[dominoislegend]

WHY DOES THIS FEEL CUT SHORT?!...I NEED an explanation!!!

[JKMT]

So that's moulds plan on taking out Tokyo, now we know.

[danielleomran]

I need to know more about slime moulds ! any longer documentary recommendations please ?

[jjdelany]

What about topography? Can it do the same if a mountain is in its path?

[Cyancat]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that people out there actually have "Fricker" as their last name?

[egypt_eagle_gamer]

It's a really amazing experiment, demonstrating how these small, actually small organisms that doesn't have any evidence of thinking or brain storming actually doing something we Human did

[kebakent]

This research is incredibly old. Maybe 5 years?

[Ninja]

You could achieve the same thing with a swarm intelligence algorithm, which is essentially what this is. You could also use ants in a similar setup and see similar results since the paths that ants take depend on the pheromones they leave behind, more ants using the same path results in more pheromones and strengthening the network.

[nocomment]

wouldn't the most efficient be a straight line between two points? I'm not sure if I'm missing something here...

[mftripz]

I could watch and grow slime mold all my life, this shit is seriously awesome to watch and observe

[JMFSpike]

It takes more or less the quickest path to get to each oat flake and makes paths connecting all of them together. It's all very logical, therefore it would seem to have some sort of brainless intelligence unknown to us. Fascinating!

[CaptainFalcnPunch]

Feels like a self replicating neural network

[finesse]

Wow if I had known this it would’ve been much more interesting when I was doing this slime lab in school

[elecbass]

It looks like there are finite resources and this is just this living thing surviving

[MegaGameFan]

Real question is can click bait solve a maze...

[beingsshepherd]

I thought that _the BBC_ were officially prohibited from advertising, to give the illusion of impartiality?

[benji]

I didn't expect it to be this interesting when I clicked.