Not a day goes by that I do not think of the wonder and almost spiritual brilliance of mushrooms and other fungi, because I am an ant and an invasive fungus has taken control of my brain. For the rest ...

Let’s hear it for slime molds. Researchers in Japan have shown that a slime mold can design a network that is as efficient as one developed by humans over many years: the Tokyo rail system.

Slime time: A velvet worm producing slime. (Courtesy: Poulhazan A et al. 2023, Journal of the American Chemical Society, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c06798 The ...

A discovery about the slime projected by velvet worms could revolutionize the design of sustainable materials, according to a study conducted by a research team from McGill University. The team found ...

What could human engineers possibly learn from the lowly slime mold? Reliable, cost-efficient network construction, apparently: a recent experiment suggests that Physarum polycephalum, a gelatinous ...

It doesn’t have a brain and survives on rotting vegetable matter — but it could offer valuable insights into city planning, according to a team of University of Toronto Engineering researchers.