The Amazing Slime Mold, Physarum polycephalum

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective of my project was to independently confirm the results of a Japanese scientist named Dr. T Nakagaki who observed that the physarum polycephalum developed pseudopodia connecting two food sources along the shortest path in a maze. I predict that my cultures of slime mold will exhibit #maze-solving# behavior at least a few times. Methods/Materials In my procedure, I cultured the physarum polycephalum protist so that I would have enough of the growing organism to place in ten plastic-film mazes. Then I cultured the slime mold inside the maze until the protist filled the whole space between the plastic-film barriers. Then I placed the food at the two endpoints of the maze on top of the slime mold culture and observed its behavior. Results Of my ten trials, three of the slime mold cultures grew pseudopodia connecting the two food sources, but not along the shortest path in the maze. Conclusions/Discussion I have concluded that my hypothesis was partially correct. My cultures grew pseudopodia connecting the two food sources. This is the same #maze-solving# behavior discovered by Dr. T Nakagaki that allows the physarum polycephalum to select the shortest path through the maze under proper laboratory conditions.

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Microbiology (General) · Entry J1513

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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