Listen & Learn: Slime Molds

Learn about some of the smartest brainless organisms

• organism: a living thing
• fungus: a type of organism that eats decaying material
• network: a group of connected things
• navigation: the process of finding one’s way
• hub: an important centre of a city
• identical: exactly like something else
• optimize: to make something as useful or efficient as possible

Listening activity

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Gapfill exercise

A slime mold is a type of organism similar to a fungus. Slime molds grow in damp, dark . There are over 900 species. For a long time, scientists did not know how to classify slime molds. They behave like plants, , and bacteria in different ways. Slime molds are interesting because they can join together to form networks of cells. These networks can store and communicate . Slime molds are also very good at navigation. They use spatial memory to find the shortest path to their destination. In fact, in 2010, a group of researchers put a slime mold in a maze modelled after Tokyo. The researchers placed food at major hubs. The slime mold chose a almost identical to Tokyo’s railway system. Since this test, scientists have experimented with using slime molds to optimize human .

Comprehension questions

See answers below

1. A slime mold is most similar to a
   a. plant
   b. animal
   c. fungus
   
2. One interesting thing slime molds can do is
   a. convert light into nutrients
   b. camouflage with their surroundings
   c. store and communicate memories
   
3. When put in a maze modelled after Tokyo, the slime mold
   a. got lost because it had no memory of the space
   b. began to consume the walls of the maze
   c. recreated the Tokyo railway system

Discussion/essay questions

1. Slime molds are an example of an organism that shows intelligence without a brain. This has caused some scientists to rethink the definition of “intelligent life.” How would you define intelligence? Do you think we underestimate plants and fungi?

Transcript

A slime mold is a type of organism similar to a fungus. Slime molds grow in damp, dark environments. There are over 900 species. For a long time, scientists did not know how to classify slime molds. They behave like plants, animals, and bacteria in different ways. Slime molds are interesting because they can join together to form networks of cells. These networks can store and communicate memories. Slime molds are also very good at navigation. They use spatial memory to find the shortest path to their destination. In fact, in 2010, a group of researchers put a slime mold in a maze modelled after Tokyo. The researchers placed food at major hubs. The slime mold chose a path almost identical to Tokyo’s railway system. Since this test, scientists have experimented with using slime molds to optimize human transportation.

Answers to comprehension questions

1c 2c 3c