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SO ENDS this first of two weekends focused on the not-so-humble slime mold family. Victorians liked flea circuses. Slime molds would have been better under time lapse. The human time scale misses the details of lives living on different time scales. Next weekend we see the slime molds at their best. View in LinkedIn

ON SLIME MOLDS AND ANTS. “Path optimization in Physarum when traversing a maze is related to ant algorithmics. Ants in a formicary undertake coordinated behavior for the location and transportation of food.” https://ukacc.group.shef.ac.uk/proceedings/control2008/papers/p246.pdf View in LinkedIn

LEARNED BEHAVIOR. “If Physarum polycephalum is subjected to a regular series of shocks, it can learn the pattern and modify its behavior in anticipation of the next stimulus.” https://ukacc.group.shef.ac.uk/proceedings/control2008/papers/p246.pdf View in LinkedIn

LOSS OF SAMENESS. "Also, different genes are contributed from each parent at every fusion that further contributes to loss of sameness. Finally, given equal distribution at each division, other molecules or atoms present in a founding cell are not likely to be present after the clone has produced a lineage of about fifty population doublings." (L. Haflick, contrarian). https://lnkd.in/esfPTAR View in LinkedIn

COMBINATION OF TWO FORMS. “In Physarum, amoebae are typically haploid. Two Physarum amoebae of different mating types combine to create a diploid cell, which then grows by a process involving repeated division without separation of the cytoplasm. The resulting large plasmodium is a single cell with multiple diploid nuclei.” https://ukacc.group.shef.ac.uk/proceedings/control2008/papers/p246.pdf View in LinkedIn

TOTIPOTENT. "The early germ line may be referred to as totipotent." http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/revreprod/5/2/93.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

POPULATION IMMORTALITY. "One problem that arises in discussing the nature of the germ line is nomenclature and the use of the terms ‘immortal’ and ‘totipotent’. Although the germ line is frequently referred to as ‘immortal’, this is only valid at the level of the entire population and, more specifically, only the genome residing within the cells that compose the germ line may be viewed as immortal." http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/revreprod/5/2/93.full.pdf View in LinkedIn

UNUSUAL REPROGRAMMING. "Germline epigenetic reprogramming in addition to requiring epigenetic modification to compose the germline, the primordial germ cells uniquely undergo striking wave of epigenetic reprogramming that most other lineage do not undergo." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2305050015000524 View in LinkedIn

"EPIGENETIC REPROGRAMMING can be explained as any mitotic or meiotic changing which does not result any alteration in DNA sequence but will have important effect on the normal embryonic development." (Explained or defined?). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2305050015000524 View in LinkedIn

ESSENTIAL. "In recent years, it has become consummately clear that changing of epigenetic modification is essential during both early and late oogenesis and spermatogenesis." https://lnkd.in/gCPVDZd View in LinkedIn