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Physarum Polycephalum is a unicellular slime mold that has been intensely studied due to its ability to solve mazes, find shortest paths, generate Steiner trees, share knowledge, remember past events, and its applications to unconventional…
Life evolved organisms to adapt dynamically to their environment and autonomously exhibit behaviours. While complex behaviours in organisms are typically associated with the capability of neurons to process information, the unicellular…
Active fluid transport is a hallmark of many biological transport networks. While animal circulatory systems generally rely on a single heart to drive flows, other organisms employ decentralized local pumps to distribute fluids and…
Physarum polycephalum is a large single amoeba cell, which in its plasmodial phase,forages and connects nearby food sources with protoplasmic tubes. The organism forages for food by growing these tubes towards detected food stuffs, this…
The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has emerged as a model for self-organisation and coordination of contractile activity at large spatial scales. This self-organisation largely results from cytoplasmic flows generated by propagating…
Optimization of fluid transport in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum has been the subject of several modeling efforts in recent literature. Existing models assume that the tube adaptation mechanism in P. polycephalum's tubular network is…
Wounding is a severe impairment of function, especially for an exposed organism like the network-forming true slime mould Physarum polycephalum. The tubular network making up the organism's body plan is entirely interconnected and shares a…
A dynamic self-organized morphology is the hallmark of network-shaped organisms like slime moulds and fungi. Organisms continuously re-organize their flexible, undifferentiated body plans to forage for food. Among these organisms the slime…
Many cells face search problems, such as finding food, mates or shelter, where their success depends on their search strategy. In contrast to other unicellular organisms, the slime mold Physarum polycephalum forms a giant network-shaped…
The true slime mold \textit{Physarum polycephalum} has the remarkable capability to perform self-organized activities such as network formation among food sources. Despite well reproducing the emergence of slime networks, existing models…
Plasmodium of true slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, is an amoeboid organism, which spreads with developing tubular network structure and crawls on two-dimensional plane with oscillating the cell thickness. The plasmodium transforms its…
A fundamental question regarding biological transport networks is the interplay between the network development or reorganization and the flows it carries. We use Physarum polycephalum, a true slime mould with a transport network which…
Physarum polycephalum is an acellular slime mould that grows as a highly adaptive network of veins filled with protoplasm. As it forages, Physarum dynamically rearranges its network structure as a response to local stimuli information,…
The phloem vascular system facilitates transport of energy-rich sugar and signaling molecules in plants, thus permitting long range communication within the organism and growth of non-photosynthesizing organs such as roots and fruits. The…
The true slime mould Physarum polycephalum is a recent well studied example of how complex transport networks emerge from simple auto-catalytic and self- organising local interactions, adapting structure and function against changing…
Intracellular transport is essential for maintaining proper cellular function in most eukaryotic cells, with perturbations in active transport resulting in several types of disease. Efficient delivery of critical cargos to specific…
The Physarum network expands or retracts in response to environmental stimuli, demonstrating an intelligent adaptive capability to locate optimal paths for nutrient transport. The underlying physical mechanism governing this intelligence…
In the realm of biological flow networks, the ability to dynamically adjust to varying demands is paramount. Drawing inspiration from the remarkable adaptability of Physarum polycephalum, we present a novel physical mechanism tailored to…
Complex distribution networks are pervasive in biology. Examples include nutrient transport in the slime mold \emph{Physarum polycephalum} as well as mammalian and plant venation. Adaptive rules are believed to guide development of these…
True slime mould Physarum polycephalum approximates a range of complex computations via growth and adaptation of its proto- plasmic transport network, stimulating a large body of recent research into how such a simple organism can perform…