Animals & nature · 2000
Can a slime mould form the shortest route between two food sources in a maze?
Yes. In a laboratory maze study, the slime mould Physarum polycephalum formed a minimum-length connection between two points. The abstract describes its ability to connect two food sources, but does not report how consistently it found the shortest route.
Details
The organism studied was a large, amoeba-like cell with a branching network of tubes. As it moves over an agar gel surface, it changes shape; when food is placed at two separate points, it extends parts of the cell to connect them. The researchers report that it could find a minimum-length route between two points in a maze. This is a finding about the routes formed by a living cell, not evidence that it consciously plans a solution. The abstract gives no sample size, success rate or comparison with alternative routes, so it does not establish how reliably the result occurs or whether it applies to other maze conditions.
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