| Clipped from: CBC News - Technology & Science - Slime mould mimics Tokyo's railway |
Slime mould mimics Tokyo's railway
A single-celled slime mould mindlessly foraging for food can create a network as efficient as the Tokyo rail system, researchers say.
A team of Japanese and British researchers say the behaviour of the amoeba-like mould could lead to better design of computer or communication networks. The slime mould Physarum polycephalum grows to connect itself to food sources as part of its normal behaviour.
The mould "can find the shortest path through a maze or connect different arrays of food sources in an efficient manner," wrote Atsushi Tero of Hokkaido University and his colleagues in this week's issue of Science.
The mould "can find the shortest path through a maze or connect different arrays of food sources in an efficient manner," wrote Atsushi Tero of Hokkaido University and his colleagues in this week's issue of Science.
| Clipped from: Better transit design through ... slime mold? - LiveScience- msnbc.com |
Better transit design through ... slime mold?
The left image shows slime mold growing out from an initial food source to colonize other food sources (white dots) arranged like a map of Tokyo rail stations. After 26 hours of growth, the mold resolved itself into a network of tubes that efficiently connected the food sources.
| Clipped from: Ride the Slime Mold Express! -- Wogan 2010 (121): 1 -- ScienceNOW |
Ride the Slime Mold Express!
The work is "a very interesting example of how biology can inspire new methods in technological design," says Melanie Mitchell, a computer scientist at Portland State University in Oregon. But she's not quite ready to jump on the slime mold express. "This paper uses only one relatively simple example," she cautions. "It's not obvious that similar experiments would work as well for matching other transport networks."
Sources:
- CBC News - Technology & Science - Slime mould mimics Tokyo's railway
- Better transit design through ... slime mold? - LiveScience- msnbc.com
- Ride the Slime Mold Express! -- Wogan 2010 (121): 1 -- ScienceNOW
- Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design -- Tero et al. 327 (5964): 439 -- Science
- Slime design mimics Tokyo's rail system
- BBC News - Engineers 'can learn from slime'
- FOXNews.com - Can Slime Molds Solve Traffic Jams?
- Observations: Slime mold validates efficiency of Tokyo rail network
- Slime mould attacks simulates Tokyo rail network : Not Exactly Rocket Science
- Brainless Slime Mold Builds a Replica Tokyo Subway | 80beats | Discover Magazine
