FIRST PROJECT IDEA/ NETWORKING - Understanding beneficial network structures that Physarum polycephalum solves.
Slime molds seem to be very good at networking. They have no central information processing unit like a brain but manages to solve more complicated tasks which can not be explained through the Darwinian mechanisms of genetic mutation and natural selection. It can find the shortest path through a maze or connect different arrays of food sources in an efficient manner with low total length, yet short average minimum distance between pairs of food sources. I.e it connects itself to scattered food crumbs in a design that’s nearly identical to Tokyo’s rail system.
Research Questions:
-What kind of communication network does this one cell organism have inside? What are the characteristics of Physarum networks?
-How can Physarum solve some network optimization problems?
-How can we understand Physarum and its intelligence from the biological perspective?
-What is the physiological mechanism in Physarum that possibly accounts for this intelligence?
-Does any biology-inspired mathematical description explain this network formation?
RESEARCH NOTES