BIOLOGICAL EXCURSIONS 1

research of biological design

m. evans

through a closer look through the eyes of design at natures gallery,perhaps we can find a gaze looking back at us asking“what have you been waiting for?”

Slime mold, or Physarum polycephalum, is also known as the ‘many-headed’ slime.

This brainless creature has been found to mimic such things as diverse as human decision making1 to Tokyo’s transport system.2 For a clue-less goo it seems to have some creative cleverness built-in to its borg-like networked nature.

I decided I should get to know it a little better...

1 http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/08/11/2978641.htm2 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/01/22/brainless-slime-mold-builds-a-replica-tokyo-subway/

So I purchased my new housemate from Southern Biological Supplies and proceeded to feed him and make him comfortable.

Somewhere away from direct light and handy storage for rolled oats, my fine new yellow friend took quickly to his new surroundings. I thought he should acclimatize for a few days before extending his domain.

Little did I know I had purchased an agile and aggressive guy with ambitions to conquer any moist lands available to him. At first I thought him to be the slime reincarnation of Alexander the Great but to circumvent the possibility of him dying due to some bacterial sickness I realised I had to find him a kind name with explorative rather than conquorial connotations. I named him Callum; Callum the polycephalum, - Callum means Dove.

Callum gives a very strong impression that he wants to be an urban designer. He seems interested in exploring his realm and buildiing networks between his sites of value (resources, otherwise known as rolled oat flakes). But Callum’s veins have an odd beauty of their own. I’ve captured this beauty, however crudely, in the production of jewelery; small intimate moments of natural beauty.

Callum’s search techniques are generous and developmental. He tends towards undiscovered lands like a curious child in search of something interesting - any direction having the same chance of triumph as any other. It would seem directionless, merely blind exploration. However, given the generosity and thereby expense of such a search, Callum breaks his exploration into stages and retains or cultivates, at all times, a strong bond wtih the nearest source of nutrients.

As soon as Callum has found and secured his resource he continues restlessly on his search, but in doing so, he seems to reconsider the necessity of the paths that brought him to the new spot. It would seem that Callum has a kind of feedback system. Once the nutrients of past locations start to wan in value he strengthens some paths into arteries and evacuates others. As long as there are new spaces to explore, those already considered and their treasures found tend to be reformed and semblances of efficiency surface.

The only sites where less networked fanning occurs is on vertical surfaces. Curves and domes does not seem to deter Callum much, nor do changes in medium, i.e. from the agar to glass, however when faced with the verical Callum seems less interested in sprawl as witnessed on the horizontal than he is in finding the top and the next likely source of food.

Another thing to note about Callum as that he also changes his morphology depending on such things as light and medium material. When he comes into contact with glass he seems to congreal his network which, and I’m guessing here, enables him to transport moisture from the agar and share it out to his ‘many-heads’.

In the case of light, he simply doesn’t like it much. I try to keep him in the shade where he is most happy but a short morning ray peeks in sometimes (Melbourne weather permitting) and he evacuates that corner until it has past.

Since I feed Callum every day there is one other noticable thing that I like about him. He never gives up. He seeks out the oats and digests them, strengthens his ties between them, traverses tall verticals with conviction and shores up his vitals where necessary... and keeps seeking. As I place food in uninvestigated areas he finds them thrillingly fast, but I also place them in sites he is starting to retreat from. With added attention he sends out the cavalry and recordinates his effots to attain them. He is a master networker and I have much to learn from him...

My next question for Callum is: can I teach him anything? Can I teach a mindless, brainless, biological organism how to think?...

Stay tuned.