Alien-Like Brainless Organism Can Think And Make Decisions – Biological Mystery

A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com – Scientists were truly surprised when they found that a single-celled organism can behave intelligently.

How can a brainless slime ‘Physarum polycephalum’ really think and make decisions? It is a biological mystery.

The blob can go around traps and get through mazes.The blob can go around traps and get through mazes. Stephane de Sakutin/AFP

Also known as “many-headed slime” or simply “blob”, this brainless yellow living creature does not even have organs like legs and eyes, or wings, but it is able to move, cut in half, can go around traps and make its way through labyrinths.

The creature regenerates in two minutes. In addition, it has about 720 genders.

It looks like a fungus but behaves more like an animal.

“The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature’s mysteries”, said Bruno David, director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, of which the Zoological Park is part.

According to David, the ‘blob’ from the Paris zoological garden “is able to learn … and if you merge two blobs, the one that has learned will transmit its knowledge to the other.”

“We know for sure it’s not a plant, but we don’t know if it’s an animal or maybe a fungus,” David said. He’s definitely acting weird for something that looks like a mushroom, acts like an animal, and can learn.”

A “Blob” - Physarum Polycephalum. Image source: Stephane de Sakutin/AFPA “Blob” – Physarum Polycephalum. Image source: Stephane de Sakutin/AFP

There are countless species on our planet but for now, scientists have not been able to classify this amazing alien-like creature with almost no limitations to any of the known species.

How an organism without a brain and nervous system can behave in a way that seems intelligent, is a riddle.

Does the blob have intelligence? Only much more complex life forms are considered to have the so-called ‘strategic behavior’.

The creature is determined in its behavior. It can reach the food in an unhindered way, and when hungry it spreads out in the direction of food at a speed of up to four centimeters per hour. Observations of the creature confirm that it stretches its network of channels and can double its size by several centimeters per day.

See also:

Wood Wide Web: Secret Communication Of Trees

10 Fascinating Facts About Plants

The blob does not move chaotically but aims towards the right target. The researchers in France have studied how it chooses its food and have been able to see that it moves directly in the direction of the nutrients that are best for it, but it can also adapt and even get used to nutrition that it usually disliked.

This single-celled organism has adaptability, and it is the first time, scientists were able to show it.

“Some were obviously skeptical of the result because it goes against the norm that learning exists only in life forms with the brain,” according to Audrey Dussutour, the ethology researcher at Toulouse University.

Plants are also considered intelligent.

Is it possible that trees can actually talk to each other?

Written by – A. Sutherland  – MessageToEagle.com Senior Staff Writer

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References:

PNAS

Wikipedia

Paper

Reuters