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Single-Celled Organism Converted Into Electronic Oscillator For Bio-Computing
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes "The single-celled organism slime mold, or Physarum polycephalum, is an extraordinary creature. It explores its world by extending protoplasmic tubes into its surroundings in search of food and it does this rather well. Various researchers have exploited this process to show how Physarum can find optimal routes between different places and even solve mazes. Now one researcher has worked out how to use these protoplasmic tubes as clock-like electronic oscillators. His experiment was straightforward. He encouraged the growth of protoplasmic tubes between two blobs of agar sitting on electrical contacts. He then measured the resistance of the tubes at various voltages. This turns out to be about 6 megaohms. But the results show something else too: that the resistance oscillates over a period of about 73 seconds. That's due to the tubes contracting as waves of calcium ions pass through them. So altering the period of oscillation should be possible by influencing the production of calcium ions, perhaps using light or biochemistry. Electronic oscillators are significant because they are basic drivers of almost all active electronic devices. But this guy's goal is bigger than this. The plan is to grow a "Physarum chip" that acts as a general purpose computer, a device that will need some kind of oscillator or clock to co-ordinate activity, just as in an ordinary processor, although speed will not be its chief characteristic."
Towards an artificial politician.
From a slime mold. It's gotta work.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
welcome our Zerg overlords.
"a human corporation called ISDN retaliates against the boppers by infecting them with a genetically modified organism called chipmold. The artificial disease succeeds in killing off the boppers, but when it infects the boppers' outer coating, a kind of smart plastic known as flickercladding, it creates a new race of intelligent symbiotes known as moldies " - from Rucy Rucker's Ware Tetrology series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ware_Tetralogy). Notably, this set of three books was released free by the author (http://www.rudyrucker.com/wares/).
This is NOT AN OSCILLATOR. From the description, it certainly shows resonance, but it IS NOT AN OSCILLATOR. An oscillator requires positive feedback and amplification which p. polycephalum DOES NOT EXHIBIT. The closest thing that you can liken it to is an LC tank or a crystal. You would think that people at Slashdot would recognize this.
Oh, they don't? Did I just hear someone in the audience shout that Timothy Lord is a braindead fool with nothing but a toilet paper journalism degree and no technical competence? Ah, I see, I see.
Allow me to be the first welcome our new soon to be Single-Celled Organism overlords. "why is the timing off on this watch? The slime mold demands we make more time!"
Because 0.0136986 Hz is not that high a clock speed...
The Potion of See Invisible oscillates!
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
So now we're torturing slime mold. Think of the poor victimized slime mold!!11!One
That oscillating slime mold was delicious!
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Is it only me who love the name it has been given?
Slime mold.
"So altering the period of oscillation should be possible by influencing the production of calcium ions, perhaps using light or biochemistry." Slime mold calls to submarines!
Development begins on a branch of Puppy Linux optimized for a 1.4 cHz Physarum processor.
Star Trek's Bio-neural gel pack?
It should be ok for languages which were designed with speed in mind so that it sort of balances out. Java, for instance.
...from the Tikalon Blog: Slimy Computation, September 15, 2011 and Marco Polo Physarum, October 1, 2012.
Is this creature made out of plastic? I've less than six megaohms, and that's including a layer of skin at both ends!
Nixon dies, and is re-spawned from mold to bring in the new tyranny.
If this can be made into some sort of organic computer, some moron somewhere will try to overclock it. Do we really want faster microorganisms?
I hope we can code our scripting languages into a slime mold, one day.
I wanna hear what it sounds like. Oh wait, John Cage has already done it with 4'33".