1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know. A production of I 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,400 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 3 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:18,960 Speaker 1: There's Charles W. Chuck, Wayne Bryant, and this is stuff 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:25,480 Speaker 1: you should know. No producer editions, right, it's just just us, buddy, 5 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: We're gonna do it. We're gonna be just fine. Jerry 6 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: took an early vacation for Memorial Day. I know she's 7 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: always doing stuff like that. She knows how to live, 8 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: and we're stuck with slime mold in her absence. I 9 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:42,720 Speaker 1: like slime mold. I knew you would love slime mold. 10 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:46,279 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I think it's pretty interesting stuff. It's very 11 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,159 Speaker 1: Josh Clarkey. It is kind of Josh clarky so much 12 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,919 Speaker 1: so that, um, as I was researching this, like I mean, 13 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: I just kind of generally knew about slime mold that 14 00:00:55,200 --> 00:00:59,080 Speaker 1: it exhibited, you know, some weird level of intelligence here there, 15 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:01,040 Speaker 1: but I didn't know much about it. And then as 16 00:01:01,080 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 1: I was researching, I was like, I'm kind of into 17 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: slime mold now, like all the different kinds of it. 18 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: I like regressed into like, you know, the nerdy eight 19 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:11,560 Speaker 1: year old I never was. And then you're like, let 20 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,559 Speaker 1: me Clark this over to Chuck and see what he thinks. Yes, 21 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,479 Speaker 1: uh yeah, I like slime old too. I think it's 22 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:20,759 Speaker 1: kind of cool. Uh, let's do it, okay, Chuck, I'm 23 00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,399 Speaker 1: ready al right, everybody stand back because we are doing it. Yeah, 24 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:27,000 Speaker 1: and I think you could file this. I mean, it's 25 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: not an animal, slime mold. I guess we should just 26 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,760 Speaker 1: tell you right away. It's not an animal. It's not 27 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: a fungus, even though you would think it's a fungus 28 00:01:36,160 --> 00:01:37,920 Speaker 1: if you saw it on the forest floor. And we'll 29 00:01:37,920 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 1: get to all this stuff, but it feels like an 30 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: animal one of our animal episodes anyway, sort of. Yeah, 31 00:01:46,800 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: I was gonna save the fact that it's not an 32 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: animal or fungus or at the very end, but sure 33 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: we could do it at the beginning. I get like, 34 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: literally in the last minute, they were like, I still 35 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,200 Speaker 1: don't know what this is. An animal is it's a 36 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,480 Speaker 1: dog in disguise. You know everything we just told you about. 37 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: It's not an animal, it's not even a fungus. And 38 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:05,160 Speaker 1: then we just go to listener maw. Uh So what 39 00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: is it though, besides super ancient as in like maybe 40 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:11,680 Speaker 1: one of the very first living things. Well, it's a 41 00:02:11,720 --> 00:02:14,600 Speaker 1: protest actually, they figured out and protests seems to be, well, 42 00:02:14,639 --> 00:02:19,320 Speaker 1: it's one of the five main kingdoms animal bacteria, plants, 43 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:23,239 Speaker 1: fun guy and then protests and protests are typically single 44 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:28,440 Speaker 1: celled organisms like amba um or protozoans, things like that, 45 00:02:28,880 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: and they have I don't I couldn't find out exactly 46 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: when they did it, but they fairly recently, I guess 47 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:39,920 Speaker 1: in the history of biology, fairly recently reclassified slime molds 48 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: from the Kingdom fun Guy over to the Kingdom Protista. Yeah, 49 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,080 Speaker 1: which is interesting because for years they have been studied 50 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: by mycologists who are fun fun guys. And they found 51 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,280 Speaker 1: out later they were like, you know what, sorry, they 52 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 1: should really go over to the protestologists, and they said, 53 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: we kind of like these guys. Can we keep studying 54 00:03:01,520 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: them since we have been And they said sure. In 55 00:03:04,919 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: the protastologists were superbissed. They were they were. They're still 56 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: actually not over it. They're frequently t peeing the academic 57 00:03:14,080 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 1: halls of the my collogists whenever they get the chance. 58 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 1: It's very bitter battle. So um, that is pretty cute 59 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,160 Speaker 1: that they that the fun guy people are are still 60 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: studying slime molds even though they're not Fun Guy. But um, 61 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,600 Speaker 1: there's you know, some good reasons why they were originally 62 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: considered to be fun Guy. Mostly that they're like these 63 00:03:33,040 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: big kind of clumps, and there's all sorts of different 64 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:39,120 Speaker 1: ways that they take shape and form depending on the species. 65 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: They're different colors. Some of them form kind of net 66 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:46,280 Speaker 1: like honeycomb structures. So the look like dog barf one 67 00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 1: of the main ones we'll talk about today looks a 68 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,720 Speaker 1: lot like dog barf. Um. They look like the fungus though, 69 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: Like if you're walking in the woods and you saw 70 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: this nine out it's in, people would say, well, it's 71 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: got to be some kind of fungus. Yeah, especially because 72 00:03:58,880 --> 00:04:01,320 Speaker 1: if you're staring at them, you would have to stare 73 00:04:01,360 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: at them for about five, six, ten hours to see that. 74 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: They have a huge difference between them and fun Guy. 75 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,080 Speaker 1: And they move. They just move so slowly it's not 76 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:16,000 Speaker 1: apparent to the to the naked eye. But if you 77 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,640 Speaker 1: if you film these things with time lapse cameras, uh 78 00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:22,039 Speaker 1: and speed it up, you can see, oh, they very 79 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:25,480 Speaker 1: clearly move about from place to place. So, um, that's 80 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: a big differentiator between them and fun Guy. But one 81 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:30,359 Speaker 1: of the reasons they thought they were like funger, that 82 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:33,800 Speaker 1: they were funkers because they produced spores to reproduce, right, 83 00:04:34,080 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: and I mentioned their ancient origins. Uh, they are about 84 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:41,599 Speaker 1: a billion years old, and like I said, could be 85 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:44,240 Speaker 1: like as soon as there was stuff, it seems like 86 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:49,240 Speaker 1: there was slime mold eating basically eating the bacteria that 87 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: breaks down other stuff that dies, and that's what they 88 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:57,559 Speaker 1: feed on. Bacteria, mold, yeast, basically anything that decomposes dead things. 89 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: Slime molds in gulf. I think it's it's not called photography. 90 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:07,280 Speaker 1: It's called phigot trophy. Oh yeah, it's a little It's 91 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:08,360 Speaker 1: not how I was going to say it, But what 92 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:12,920 Speaker 1: are we gonna trophy? Yeah, but I think you're absolutely right. Well, 93 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:15,360 Speaker 1: you know us, it wouldn't be as if we didn't. 94 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: Probably both get it wrong, right, But that's when you 95 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: basically surround something and then gulf it and just sort 96 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 1: of like move it into your body just like sort 97 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: of absorb it basically. Yeah, which is another difference between 98 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:32,839 Speaker 1: slime molds and fungi, because funk i actually break the 99 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:36,359 Speaker 1: food down and then absorb the broken down nutrients. But 100 00:05:36,400 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: the fact is, if you have things that are decomposing 101 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:43,040 Speaker 1: other things like bacteria, molds, yeast, the things that that 102 00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 1: crawl onto or grow on dead people, dead trees, all 103 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: that stuff to break them back down into their constituents. 104 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:53,560 Speaker 1: So the fact that those the slime mold feeds on 105 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 1: other things, it makes it a really important part of 106 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:59,599 Speaker 1: the food web, part of the nutrient cycle, because other 107 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:03,880 Speaker 1: things them along and eat the slime molds. Um. There's 108 00:06:03,880 --> 00:06:06,920 Speaker 1: apparently a kind of beetle that has a specialized jaw 109 00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,360 Speaker 1: that allows it to slurp up slime molds. I think 110 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:12,839 Speaker 1: some kinds of insect larva eat them and then so 111 00:06:12,920 --> 00:06:14,760 Speaker 1: it just kind of keeps going. But they're a really 112 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:17,320 Speaker 1: important part where you just have these microbes that like 113 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:20,719 Speaker 1: the beetle couldn't get to that they're able to basically 114 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: get that energy from you know, the bacteria by eating 115 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: the slime mold. Right, and even though other protests can 116 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:33,640 Speaker 1: carry disease, slime mold is quite human friendly. Actually, uh, 117 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:35,440 Speaker 1: you can eat the stuff if you want. There's a 118 00:06:35,480 --> 00:06:38,719 Speaker 1: dish in Mexico and some parts of Mexico called Coca 119 00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,919 Speaker 1: de Luna, which is exactly what you think it is. 120 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:46,080 Speaker 1: Poop poop of the moon, moon poop, and uh, they 121 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:48,240 Speaker 1: eat this stuff. I even looked online to try and 122 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,960 Speaker 1: get a good recipe, but um, it's not on like 123 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: the pages of Martha Stewart Living like it's you got 124 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: to dive deep into Reddit and stuff like that to 125 00:06:56,839 --> 00:07:01,600 Speaker 1: get some good recipes. It seems like almost almost smacks 126 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:04,360 Speaker 1: of urban legend. But I'm seeing it in different enough 127 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: forms that I think it's probable that it actually is 128 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:11,640 Speaker 1: a thing. The thing that scares me is that people say, 129 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:14,400 Speaker 1: like in some regions of Mexico, it's like, that's not 130 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,520 Speaker 1: super specific, you know. True. Uh, and and we pointed 131 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:21,120 Speaker 1: out they weren't animals or plants, but we definitely need 132 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,720 Speaker 1: to point out that slime old is also not mold 133 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:28,920 Speaker 1: as a protest. That's right. So um. One of the 134 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:32,880 Speaker 1: one of the really amazing things about slime mold is, um, 135 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:34,800 Speaker 1: there's a couple of different kinds, as we'll talk about 136 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,440 Speaker 1: in a second, but one a whole bunch of different 137 00:07:38,520 --> 00:07:41,520 Speaker 1: kinds of species. One type of slime mold can get 138 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: really big. I mean, some of them can get up 139 00:07:44,160 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 1: to the size of like a medium or pizza large pizza, 140 00:07:48,040 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: I guess, depending on whether you're getting ripped off by 141 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:54,440 Speaker 1: your pizza guy. But like twelve inches in diameter. That's enormous, right, 142 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:56,360 Speaker 1: So you're like, well, that's pretty cool. It's a big 143 00:07:56,360 --> 00:07:59,600 Speaker 1: blob of mold. Well, put your sock carters on, because 144 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:02,360 Speaker 1: I'm about blow your socks right off your feet. Some 145 00:08:02,520 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: of those types of slime mold that are as big 146 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:08,680 Speaker 1: as a pizza are one giant cell. Yeah, I mean, 147 00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,040 Speaker 1: this is truly amazing. The plasmodial slime mold, which is 148 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:14,040 Speaker 1: I guess you could call it one of the true 149 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: slime mold. Is it has all the stuff like as 150 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:21,800 Speaker 1: if it were undergoing cellular division, and all the all 151 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:25,920 Speaker 1: the different nuclei, like millions of nuclei, organelles, cytoplasm, all 152 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: that stuff. But it's just not it doesn't have cell walls. 153 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: It's not individual little cells. It's just it splits and 154 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:36,560 Speaker 1: lives inside this giant fortress wall. Yeah. It's almost like 155 00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: if you took all the cells that should have made 156 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 1: this giant blob um up as a multicellular organism and 157 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:45,760 Speaker 1: just kind of broke them open and dumped all the 158 00:08:45,800 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: contents into this blob and then through the cell walls away. 159 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: That's what you would have it's it's interesting, it is, 160 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:54,679 Speaker 1: and it's it's really kind of straightforward if you if 161 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:56,719 Speaker 1: you just hear it. But it's also really easy to 162 00:08:56,720 --> 00:08:59,640 Speaker 1: to just keep going like wait, wait, why why is 163 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:01,400 Speaker 1: it like dead? And how is it like this? What's 164 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: going on here? Which is one of those things that 165 00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:06,319 Speaker 1: it just it makes slime old. It's its own thing. 166 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:10,959 Speaker 1: And we're still learning about this stuff, you know, every day. Yeah, 167 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:13,200 Speaker 1: and it I mean it gets there's quite a few 168 00:09:13,240 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: times in here where we're gonna say, and here's where 169 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:20,040 Speaker 1: it gets even crazier. Uh, this isn't super crazy. But 170 00:09:20,080 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: the the other kind of slime mold um or the 171 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:26,360 Speaker 1: other big broad categories a cellular slime mold, and these 172 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:31,400 Speaker 1: are lots of individual, single celled organisms. But the kind 173 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,120 Speaker 1: of knockout fact about them is when they're stressed out, 174 00:09:35,160 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 1: if they don't have a lot of food around, they 175 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:42,959 Speaker 1: can join up together and sort of look like one 176 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,520 Speaker 1: of those plasmodial slime molds. But it's not. It's called 177 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 1: I guess pseudo plasmodial yeah, because it's not a real one. 178 00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:53,480 Speaker 1: But it basically says, all right, we're gonna all come 179 00:09:53,520 --> 00:09:56,440 Speaker 1: together to try and find food together. And then when 180 00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: they do have food, they can be like, all right, 181 00:09:58,120 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: we'll just go along our merryway and split up again, yeah, 182 00:10:01,520 --> 00:10:04,199 Speaker 1: which is pretty nuts. They also will come together, um 183 00:10:04,240 --> 00:10:07,520 Speaker 1: Apparently it makes it harder for predators like those specialized 184 00:10:07,520 --> 00:10:11,120 Speaker 1: beetles to eat them, because those individual slime molds can 185 00:10:11,160 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 1: be you know, a millimeter in size or smaller. Um, 186 00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:18,760 Speaker 1: So it's pretty easy for a beetle to eat that. 187 00:10:18,800 --> 00:10:20,680 Speaker 1: It's much harder for a beetle to eat something the 188 00:10:20,720 --> 00:10:23,880 Speaker 1: size of like, you know, a quarter. Right, So they 189 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,679 Speaker 1: actually do come together. They come together to move. They 190 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,000 Speaker 1: also come together to reproduce and produce spores. But the 191 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:34,000 Speaker 1: characteristic of this that what makes it a pseudoplasmodium rather 192 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: than actual true slime mold, is that they retain their 193 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,360 Speaker 1: cell walls, their individual cells when they come together. They 194 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:44,719 Speaker 1: just kind of loosely formed together. In a really good 195 00:10:44,760 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: way of understanding what this the cellular slime molds created, 196 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: it's kind of like a swarm. Yeah, that's a good 197 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,840 Speaker 1: way to put it, I think. Or what's the god 198 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:56,680 Speaker 1: that my favorite thing when the birds do that, what's 199 00:10:56,679 --> 00:11:04,560 Speaker 1: that called? Uh flock of seagulls haircut? That's it? Uh 200 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:09,240 Speaker 1: uh boy, you threw me there. So these the plasmodium 201 00:11:09,280 --> 00:11:11,679 Speaker 1: is covered by a layer of slime, and you're gonna 202 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:13,280 Speaker 1: want to put a pin in this because when they 203 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: do move around, they leave behind a little these little 204 00:11:17,160 --> 00:11:21,160 Speaker 1: collapse tubules and it looks basically like not exactly like 205 00:11:21,160 --> 00:11:23,280 Speaker 1: a snail trail, but sort of like a layer of slime. 206 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:26,400 Speaker 1: And you're gonna want to remember that for later on, 207 00:11:26,520 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 1: because he's actually kind of served as important little markers. 208 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, write, write it down. Everybody 209 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:34,079 Speaker 1: will wait until you get a pen, a piece of paper. 210 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:40,240 Speaker 1: Go inside the CBS closest to you. Yeah, yeah, put 211 00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:43,240 Speaker 1: on your mask by pen, yep, by a piece of paper. 212 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:45,679 Speaker 1: Pay ten twelve times what you should have paid for 213 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:49,360 Speaker 1: that pen. Really, oh my god. Pin mark up as 214 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:52,040 Speaker 1: big as CDs. I think the general mark up as 215 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:54,839 Speaker 1: CVS fairly high. They're like, we get him in here 216 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:56,880 Speaker 1: for the aspirin, then we really juice them with this 217 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:01,560 Speaker 1: ballpoint pen. I hope there's no CBS ads in this episode, 218 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:03,920 Speaker 1: but we'll find out. What is what's a good deal 219 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 1: at a drug store? Is there like a zero? They 220 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: all mark it up? Yeah, everything's marked up because it's 221 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,079 Speaker 1: like it's like convenience kind of thing. You sound like 222 00:12:14,120 --> 00:12:16,839 Speaker 1: a lot of sound like a grandfather. It's all marked up. 223 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:20,160 Speaker 1: Back in my day, you just go to a regular 224 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:24,080 Speaker 1: grocery store and buy your pens from the ben factory, 225 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:27,640 Speaker 1: straight from the man who made It's right. Uh. You know, 226 00:12:27,720 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: when I was little, we would uh for a short time. 227 00:12:30,480 --> 00:12:32,400 Speaker 1: I'm not sure why we did this, because it's not 228 00:12:32,440 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: like we lived out in the country and this is 229 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:36,280 Speaker 1: a very old timey country thing to do. We bought 230 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:39,400 Speaker 1: our milk direct from a farm and we would pull 231 00:12:39,520 --> 00:12:42,040 Speaker 1: up and and uh, I would get to walk inside 232 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:44,320 Speaker 1: this huge walk in cooler, like next to a loading dock, 233 00:12:44,360 --> 00:12:46,080 Speaker 1: and I just thought it was like the coolest thing 234 00:12:46,120 --> 00:12:49,360 Speaker 1: in the world. Somehow to get that fresh milk. Sure 235 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:52,520 Speaker 1: didn't they. They back the cow up and it makes 236 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: a beeping sound, and they just scored the milk right 237 00:12:55,080 --> 00:12:57,600 Speaker 1: into the back of your station Wagon's right, they mark 238 00:12:57,640 --> 00:13:01,160 Speaker 1: it up first, wash your way home. Uh so where 239 00:13:01,200 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: were we? Okay? If you do see this stuff in 240 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:06,240 Speaker 1: the woods, if you ever hiking along and you see 241 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 1: a big or medium size pizza like yellow blob or 242 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:14,560 Speaker 1: orange blob, they can be red. They can be white. 243 00:13:15,160 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: They can be maroon very rarely, they can be black, blue, 244 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:23,120 Speaker 1: or green, but usually it's sort of yellow or an orange. 245 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:25,760 Speaker 1: And you see that in the forest, you're probably looking 246 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,520 Speaker 1: at a slime mold. Yeah, especially if it's really hot 247 00:13:29,559 --> 00:13:33,360 Speaker 1: out and it just rained. Yeah, the the worst thing 248 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: in the world for me. You can also see them 249 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: like on your grass too. Apparently if it gets really 250 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,120 Speaker 1: rainy and hot, slime molds will actually come out of 251 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:43,320 Speaker 1: the woods into your grass and be like, oh, this 252 00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:47,160 Speaker 1: is pretty nice, and um, they aren't gonna do any harm. 253 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,640 Speaker 1: That's not a problem for your grass. It just looks 254 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:51,679 Speaker 1: kind of gross. It's certainly not gonna hurt you or 255 00:13:51,720 --> 00:13:54,440 Speaker 1: your pets. And then eventually it'll dry up and turn 256 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:56,880 Speaker 1: to kind of a gray or tamp powder and blow away, 257 00:13:57,240 --> 00:13:59,120 Speaker 1: and that means that it just turned into spores and 258 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:02,960 Speaker 1: it just reproduced all over your place. Yeah. I think 259 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:05,959 Speaker 1: maybe we should take a break because right now people 260 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:10,959 Speaker 1: are probably like, dudes, you promised greatness here and so 261 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 1: far it's a little hum drum what So put those 262 00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:18,120 Speaker 1: soft garters back on, because when we come back, we're 263 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:20,280 Speaker 1: really going to start knocking them off with some of 264 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:48,760 Speaker 1: these amazing facts Okay, Chuck, we set them up. Let's 265 00:14:48,800 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: knock him back down. So here's one cool fact is 266 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:57,720 Speaker 1: that slime molds basically can do the equivalent and do 267 00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:02,080 Speaker 1: the equivalent of throwing themselves the grenade. Uh. They will 268 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 1: sacrifice themselves to save others. And these are things without 269 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,840 Speaker 1: a brain or a central nervous system. Like, it's not 270 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 1: like they think, I'm feeling empathy today for my fellow 271 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,720 Speaker 1: mold and so I'm gonna save everybody because I've come 272 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:17,960 Speaker 1: across some infectious bacteria. But what they do is they 273 00:15:18,680 --> 00:15:22,360 Speaker 1: come across it, they engulf it, and then they say, 274 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,640 Speaker 1: let me go, and they cut themselves off from the pack, 275 00:15:25,760 --> 00:15:29,800 Speaker 1: from the swarm and detach themselves and die of that infection, 276 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,000 Speaker 1: but save the rest of the group. And um, my 277 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:37,960 Speaker 1: heart will go on place in the background as they 278 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:42,440 Speaker 1: get further and further away, exactly. That's that's altruism, Yeah, 279 00:15:42,480 --> 00:15:44,640 Speaker 1: which is pretty amazing considering, like you said, they don't 280 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: have a brain or anything like that. So how how 281 00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:51,520 Speaker 1: are they doing this? We'll get to that later. So 282 00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: what about tell everyone about the uh dicti stelli um 283 00:15:55,680 --> 00:16:00,920 Speaker 1: disc discoitus disc discoides. Okay, that's one of my favorite 284 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: words now disco Whiteyscau's disco in it. So that this 285 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,840 Speaker 1: was this is a kind of um cellular um slime mold, right, 286 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:12,120 Speaker 1: So it's made up of a bunch of different individual 287 00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:16,880 Speaker 1: organisms that come together. And when they come together they 288 00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:20,280 Speaker 1: practice altruism to some degree as well, because some of 289 00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:23,400 Speaker 1: them will basically be like, Okay, I'm dead, now I'm dead. 290 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:27,200 Speaker 1: I'm gonna turn into a bundle of cellulose fibers, and 291 00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: that cellulose is going to connect with other slime mold 292 00:16:31,040 --> 00:16:34,600 Speaker 1: cells that have died and turned into cellulose and come 293 00:16:34,640 --> 00:16:37,800 Speaker 1: together and form a stalk. And then the top of 294 00:16:37,840 --> 00:16:41,120 Speaker 1: the stalk, a bunch of different um slime mold cells 295 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:43,960 Speaker 1: they're called slugs when they're individual like that, will climb 296 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:47,000 Speaker 1: up the stalk and then they'll turn into spores. And 297 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: then in that way they're sticking up out of the 298 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: ground and a passing animal will come and they'll stick 299 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:55,560 Speaker 1: to it and it'll get a ride to greener pastures. 300 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:58,080 Speaker 1: But to do that, some of them have to die 301 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: to form this talked to to let the spores grow 302 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,280 Speaker 1: on top of which is pretty amazing itself. It is 303 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,280 Speaker 1: uh And you know we mentioned that they move. You know, 304 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:10,280 Speaker 1: they're not. They don't just sit around and wait for 305 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:14,080 Speaker 1: someone to drop a pepperoni near their pizza shape and 306 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:16,600 Speaker 1: the woods so they can eat it. They gotta go 307 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:19,560 Speaker 1: where the food is. And they either moved by these 308 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:22,879 Speaker 1: little appendages that like little feet like appendages. Those are 309 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:26,359 Speaker 1: the cellular slime olds, the individual single celled organisms that 310 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,239 Speaker 1: can come together, or and this is crazy, the the 311 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:33,439 Speaker 1: other kind. They move as one big mass because you know, 312 00:17:33,440 --> 00:17:35,440 Speaker 1: there's no cell wall going on, so they just sort 313 00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:39,800 Speaker 1: of expand and contract the cytoplasm to kind of gush 314 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: their way along the ground very slowly. Yeah, which is 315 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:46,520 Speaker 1: really neat to see because when they're especially when they're 316 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,920 Speaker 1: searching for food, which is basically all they're ever doing. 317 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:51,600 Speaker 1: Everything that they do is either to get away from 318 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:55,760 Speaker 1: some noxious stimuli or to go toward food. Usually to 319 00:17:55,800 --> 00:18:00,760 Speaker 1: go toward food. It sounds like us it basically I 320 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 1: don't like that, but I like that smell. I'm gonna 321 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:09,360 Speaker 1: go toward that. So um. They make these amazing kind 322 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:12,000 Speaker 1: of they look almost like sea fans, you know what 323 00:18:12,080 --> 00:18:15,000 Speaker 1: I'm talking about That they look very fractally and they 324 00:18:15,040 --> 00:18:17,600 Speaker 1: just kind of they fan out. Is the best way 325 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:19,960 Speaker 1: to put it, when they start to go look for food, 326 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:23,120 Speaker 1: and when they do find food, they start moving toward it. 327 00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: It's the cell walls contract and that cytoplasm goes that way, 328 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: and next thing, you know, over a very long period 329 00:18:29,800 --> 00:18:35,080 Speaker 1: of time, five days later, the the slime mold has moved. 330 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,840 Speaker 1: And actually slime molds um if you don't they like 331 00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:41,840 Speaker 1: they they're totally fine living in peatree dishes for as 332 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:44,159 Speaker 1: long as you want them to um, as long as 333 00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,199 Speaker 1: you feed them. If you stop feeding them, they'll just 334 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:49,520 Speaker 1: get out of the peatree dish and start looking for 335 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:53,960 Speaker 1: food elsewhere, so they'll they'll escape. Yeah, but I mean again, 336 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:56,240 Speaker 1: it's not like you're just sitting there watching this thing 337 00:18:56,280 --> 00:18:59,080 Speaker 1: crawl out of it's petrie dishes. You leave overnight and 338 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:01,040 Speaker 1: you forget to feed the thing and you come back 339 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:04,080 Speaker 1: and it's half of it is out onto the table 340 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 1: or something like. It's something like a bread out of 341 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: gremlins kind of you. And I think you said they 342 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:12,760 Speaker 1: moved about a millimeter an hour, but some of them actually, 343 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,280 Speaker 1: if they're really cooking, can go about an inch and 344 00:19:15,320 --> 00:19:18,159 Speaker 1: a half in an hour, which that's really fast. I mean, 345 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:20,239 Speaker 1: it doesn't sound fast. But when you're talking about what 346 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,520 Speaker 1: we're talking about, it is pretty fast. Yeah, um, and 347 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:26,160 Speaker 1: I saw that a couple of places. Most people cite 348 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:28,640 Speaker 1: something like a millimeter an hour. I can't remember which 349 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:31,000 Speaker 1: one goes that fast, but yeah, I mean, you can't 350 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:32,920 Speaker 1: see it moving when you're staring at it, but over 351 00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:36,119 Speaker 1: time you can for sure. You know, if you're just 352 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 1: really patient and you can lock in on something, you 353 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:43,280 Speaker 1: might be able to see that. So when they started 354 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,280 Speaker 1: figuring out in the early two thousands, of Japanese researchers 355 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:49,359 Speaker 1: were some of the first to like really study slime 356 00:19:49,359 --> 00:19:52,280 Speaker 1: molds as as showing some sort of intelligence. They figured 357 00:19:52,280 --> 00:19:55,600 Speaker 1: this out from you know, from watching these things actually 358 00:19:55,720 --> 00:19:58,879 Speaker 1: move about and when you when you film them and 359 00:19:59,160 --> 00:20:02,760 Speaker 1: um that like high speed and then replay it, you 360 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:06,359 Speaker 1: can see their movements are deliberate in a lot of ways. 361 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:09,600 Speaker 1: They're they're not just blind dumb movements where they happen 362 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:14,840 Speaker 1: on to um food. They clearly consense food somehow or 363 00:20:14,920 --> 00:20:18,480 Speaker 1: some way, and they spread out um and they seemed 364 00:20:18,520 --> 00:20:21,000 Speaker 1: to spread out and again in a really deliberate way. 365 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:25,439 Speaker 1: And so some some researchers started to um test slime 366 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:28,439 Speaker 1: molds to see what they were capable of. One of 367 00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:32,000 Speaker 1: the first one one of the first researchers was a 368 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:37,560 Speaker 1: Japanese scientist named toshi Yuki Nakagaki, and UM, I think 369 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:41,880 Speaker 1: so too, and Dr Nakagaki, which is even better. Um 370 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:44,359 Speaker 1: built a maze, like a pretty simple maze, but in 371 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:47,720 Speaker 1: actual three dimensional maze and a good sized peach tree 372 00:20:47,760 --> 00:20:51,480 Speaker 1: dish put um what what has come to be known 373 00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: as probably the smartest size slime mold, Farium polycephalum, which 374 00:20:57,320 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 1: is kind of like the rock star of the slime 375 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:02,440 Speaker 1: mold world these days, put a psarium in it and said, 376 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:06,639 Speaker 1: go to town, go find your little favorite oat flake treat, 377 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,400 Speaker 1: which is their their favorite food. Yeah, And the key 378 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:12,880 Speaker 1: here is is there were four different routes to two 379 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:15,679 Speaker 1: different endpoints where this food was. It wasn't just like 380 00:21:16,440 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 1: there's only one way to solve this maze. And so 381 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:23,080 Speaker 1: they put the little oat flake at these endpoints, and uh, 382 00:21:23,119 --> 00:21:25,480 Speaker 1: the microorganisms that grow on the oat flakes is what 383 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:27,800 Speaker 1: they're after. That's not like they love oatmeal or anything 384 00:21:27,840 --> 00:21:31,680 Speaker 1: like that. And so he put them there and studied them, 385 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:37,480 Speaker 1: and over the course of hours, these things basically learned 386 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,800 Speaker 1: to get to that food in the quickest fastest way 387 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:46,120 Speaker 1: every single time. Yeah, like it could, it could conceivably 388 00:21:46,160 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 1: get to it, like you said, four different ways, but 389 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,359 Speaker 1: that fast way was the way that it would. Just like, 390 00:21:51,440 --> 00:21:54,359 Speaker 1: that's impressive. That that's definitely not worthy. You can write 391 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:57,600 Speaker 1: multiple papers on that kind of study. And so another 392 00:21:57,680 --> 00:22:01,720 Speaker 1: Japanese researcher came along and said, hold my sack, a 393 00:22:01,760 --> 00:22:06,159 Speaker 1: researcher name at Sushi Taro from Okkaido University. Did you 394 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:10,359 Speaker 1: like that? Yeah, that's good? And um Dr Tiro said, 395 00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:12,639 Speaker 1: all right, what about this? What if we take some 396 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:16,679 Speaker 1: oat flakes and basically make a general map of the 397 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:21,120 Speaker 1: neighborhoods in Tokyo and see what the slime old does 398 00:22:21,119 --> 00:22:22,959 Speaker 1: with that? Put a little slime old in a petrie 399 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:24,879 Speaker 1: dish with these oat flakes that kind of mimic the 400 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,440 Speaker 1: neighborhoods of Tokyo, and watched to go I think over 401 00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,880 Speaker 1: the course of like four or five days. Right, yeah, 402 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:35,320 Speaker 1: and you might think cool. It does what it does 403 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:37,359 Speaker 1: and it goes after that food in the most direct 404 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,880 Speaker 1: way possible, which is what it did. But here's where 405 00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:46,679 Speaker 1: it gets genuinely amazing is they went back and they 406 00:22:46,720 --> 00:22:51,359 Speaker 1: overlaid a map of the current Tokyo Railway commuter system, 407 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: the subway system, and they laid it over this grid 408 00:22:55,520 --> 00:23:00,680 Speaker 1: the slime and it was almost a perfect match. That nuts, 409 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:04,120 Speaker 1: that's I mean, I had to reread that like five 410 00:23:04,200 --> 00:23:07,480 Speaker 1: times to even believe that that's what happened. That this 411 00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:12,120 Speaker 1: line basically figured out the most efficient route to get 412 00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:17,280 Speaker 1: around essentially Tokyo. Yes, which I mean humans had figured 413 00:23:17,320 --> 00:23:20,680 Speaker 1: out too, but it took teams of human engineers and 414 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:24,080 Speaker 1: a very long time for them to figure this out. Right, 415 00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:26,679 Speaker 1: So the slime mold was just like, this is this 416 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:29,120 Speaker 1: is nothing. What else you got? You got any more 417 00:23:29,160 --> 00:23:31,960 Speaker 1: cities that are more densely populated with more neighborhoods, because 418 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:34,600 Speaker 1: I'll just make your subway maps all day long basically, 419 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:39,400 Speaker 1: and they're like, Tokyo is probably one of the most debts, right, Okay. 420 00:23:39,640 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: I saw another um another similar kind of a bit 421 00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,720 Speaker 1: of research chuck, where they actually used oat flakes to 422 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 1: signify ancient Roman cities in the Balkans. This is this 423 00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:56,080 Speaker 1: is crazy. It's like an archaeological study, um. And they 424 00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,119 Speaker 1: put some they six some fiserium on it and fis 425 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:04,280 Speaker 1: um on it, and it mimicked ancient Roman roads that 426 00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:08,679 Speaker 1: had been lost, were very obscure, had largely been forgotten, 427 00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:12,359 Speaker 1: and ones that were well known in the Balkans. It 428 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,119 Speaker 1: mimics these these Roman roads like things that people have 429 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:17,879 Speaker 1: been like, Okay, this is the best route from this 430 00:24:17,960 --> 00:24:21,399 Speaker 1: city to this city. The slime mold did basically the 431 00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: same thing and and apparently revealed some lost stuff. Yeah, 432 00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:27,479 Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it could. Also It's interesting like 433 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:30,320 Speaker 1: if it doesn't match up, if they do an experiment 434 00:24:30,359 --> 00:24:33,960 Speaker 1: like this, does that mean like the humans get it wrong? 435 00:24:35,280 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 1: Like can they use this as a test and be like, sorry, 436 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,400 Speaker 1: the slime old is spoken. I guess so. I kind 437 00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,359 Speaker 1: of like the octopus picking the World Cup. You know, 438 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:46,400 Speaker 1: they always take the World Cup away if the other 439 00:24:46,440 --> 00:24:50,040 Speaker 1: team that the octopus didn't. Yeah, well, I wonder if 440 00:24:50,040 --> 00:24:53,080 Speaker 1: you I mean, and we'll get to the real applications 441 00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:54,879 Speaker 1: of this, but I wonder if they could do something 442 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: like that where they let's say they look at the 443 00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,160 Speaker 1: Tokyo system in a couple of places that didn't match, 444 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,880 Speaker 1: They're like, we totally should have gone this way. Yes, 445 00:25:03,200 --> 00:25:06,000 Speaker 1: I feel like that that is the direction that people 446 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,400 Speaker 1: are kind of going in that they could conceivably use 447 00:25:09,560 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: this for planning new stuff. You know. Wow, So every 448 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:19,680 Speaker 1: city planner we'll have a slime mold researcher at their best. Yeah, 449 00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,879 Speaker 1: I mean, like, this is crazy. Why not? You know, 450 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:25,720 Speaker 1: all you have to do is have some oat flakes 451 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,400 Speaker 1: and a Petri dish and you're good. So I think 452 00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: we should take another break. What do you think? Quite frankly, 453 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:33,240 Speaker 1: we want to eat some oat flakes right about now. 454 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,919 Speaker 1: I'm kinda in the move for that too. We'll be 455 00:25:37,000 --> 00:26:04,320 Speaker 1: right back. Okay, did you just see some moat flakes? 456 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,119 Speaker 1: I did not. All right, we'll get you something, because 457 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 1: here's the secret, everybody, when we take a break, we 458 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,960 Speaker 1: don't really go take a break. No, we should have 459 00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,960 Speaker 1: had some crusty old oat flakes on your desk and 460 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:19,960 Speaker 1: just eating them real quick. I I don't know, I 461 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,280 Speaker 1: can't see. So all right, we've said that these things 462 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,480 Speaker 1: don't have brains. They don't have and I don't think 463 00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:28,480 Speaker 1: we mentioned that. It's not like they have like it's 464 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:30,399 Speaker 1: not like their jellyfish and they have some sort of 465 00:26:30,440 --> 00:26:33,680 Speaker 1: weird neural net. They got nothing like that at all, 466 00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: nothing like they have no way of of generating consciousness 467 00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:43,879 Speaker 1: in any form that we recognize. And yet slime old 468 00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:47,919 Speaker 1: is teaching us to open and open our horizons um 469 00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:51,800 Speaker 1: in hearts to sure two new ideas of what constitutes 470 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,560 Speaker 1: consciousness and intelligence. You know what I'm saying, Like it 471 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,359 Speaker 1: makes sense as a swarm, as a bunch of cellular 472 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,000 Speaker 1: as cellular slime mold makes sense. We're already familiar with 473 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:04,080 Speaker 1: the hive mind, and you know, the emergent property of 474 00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:07,320 Speaker 1: a bunch of different things, you know, operating together. The 475 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:12,600 Speaker 1: real puzzler, though, is the the single cell plasmodial slime 476 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,639 Speaker 1: mold that's one big giant cell and the fact that 477 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:20,200 Speaker 1: it behaves in ways that seemed conscious to some degree. Yeah. 478 00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:22,119 Speaker 1: So if you want to kind of go back in 479 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:25,800 Speaker 1: time to where a lot of this rearch research started, 480 00:27:26,960 --> 00:27:28,840 Speaker 1: it wasn't actually in Japan, but it was in the 481 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:34,959 Speaker 1: nineties sixties physicist named Evelyn Fox. Keller was curious if 482 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:40,160 Speaker 1: she could use math to model biological systems because they 483 00:27:40,200 --> 00:27:44,080 Speaker 1: had had success using math to explain and expand our 484 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,480 Speaker 1: understanding of physics. So she was like, let me see 485 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,320 Speaker 1: if we can do this with biology, and someone said, well, 486 00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:53,480 Speaker 1: you gotta meet Lead Siegel. Siegel, is you got a 487 00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:57,360 Speaker 1: little surprise for you? And Lee Siegel got together and said, oh, 488 00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,600 Speaker 1: Dr Keller, you need to meet our end slime mold. 489 00:28:01,840 --> 00:28:04,040 Speaker 1: And Dr Kell is like, this is the nineteen sixties. 490 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:07,000 Speaker 1: I don't know what slime mold is yet. And Keller 491 00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:09,840 Speaker 1: and sorry Siegel said oh, we'll just take a seat 492 00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:13,520 Speaker 1: and let me tell you about this, uh, which is 493 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:23,720 Speaker 1: dicto dictio still stellium, dicta stellium, right, dictio stellium disc goidium. 494 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:29,159 Speaker 1: I think the discoids discoidium Yeah, okay, but it's the 495 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,000 Speaker 1: one we were talking about earlier that that creates the stems. 496 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,400 Speaker 1: They sacrifice themselves to create stems for the sports, right. 497 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:37,399 Speaker 1: And I think this was just significant because it was 498 00:28:37,440 --> 00:28:40,560 Speaker 1: kind of like the first time anyone had observed and 499 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:43,920 Speaker 1: you know, fell off of their lab stool and could 500 00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:47,600 Speaker 1: explain it to others, these pseudo plasmodiums. But what they 501 00:28:47,600 --> 00:28:49,120 Speaker 1: were missing was they were like, all right, we see 502 00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: this happening, and it's amazing and how are they doing this? Though? 503 00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:56,640 Speaker 1: And the very first thing they thought of is like, 504 00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:58,920 Speaker 1: maybe it's like an ant colony or something, and maybe 505 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,440 Speaker 1: there's like a leader or a pacemaker cell or maybe 506 00:29:02,480 --> 00:29:04,920 Speaker 1: a few of them. They get together and they just 507 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,120 Speaker 1: sort of send out chemical signals to everyone else and 508 00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,560 Speaker 1: say go this way, and the rest are just sort 509 00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:14,080 Speaker 1: of the worker ants that follow along. Yeah, And they 510 00:29:14,160 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: knew in particular that there was a chemical called cyclical 511 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,720 Speaker 1: a MP, which is related to a t P, the 512 00:29:21,840 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: dino cine triphosphate um, and that that was how they 513 00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:29,480 Speaker 1: were signaling. But they thought that that like you're saying, 514 00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,000 Speaker 1: that there are just a few signaling, everybody else was responding. 515 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:33,840 Speaker 1: And what they figured out is that that they had 516 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:37,720 Speaker 1: that totally wrong. That there weren't leaders, There weren't pacemakers 517 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,160 Speaker 1: who were in charge of like you know, signaling and 518 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:42,680 Speaker 1: an effect making decisions for the group. That it was 519 00:29:42,680 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 1: actually like a group effort, and that the the whatever 520 00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:50,560 Speaker 1: um whatever cell or slug that they're called in this 521 00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:55,200 Speaker 1: cellular slime mold swarm was closest to food. It would 522 00:29:55,360 --> 00:29:58,959 Speaker 1: signal with a MP that hey, there's some food over here, 523 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:01,480 Speaker 1: let's all go over this way, and that signal would 524 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,080 Speaker 1: just kind of be passed along through the swarm, through 525 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:06,840 Speaker 1: the cellular slime mold, and the slime mold would move 526 00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:09,760 Speaker 1: toward the food and start eating. Yeah, and this was 527 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:11,960 Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you can see why they went 528 00:30:11,960 --> 00:30:14,920 Speaker 1: in that initial direction because it made sense, and a 529 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,440 Speaker 1: lot of nature is organized with the top down principle. 530 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:22,640 Speaker 1: In mind, humans often organized with the top down principle 531 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:26,160 Speaker 1: big business, government. It's just a it's a system that 532 00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,360 Speaker 1: we're used to seeing in in nature and in people, 533 00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:31,880 Speaker 1: and so it made sense that they went that way, 534 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: and they never they never really thought about the fact 535 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,120 Speaker 1: that it could be like, no, there, Uh, it's a 536 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,680 Speaker 1: total bottom up system and whatever is closest can sig 537 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,520 Speaker 1: send out these signals. Yeah, so instead of like a hierarchy, 538 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:47,840 Speaker 1: it's more like, um, it's like it's like how a 539 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,920 Speaker 1: flock of birds operate. So a flock of seagulls haircut 540 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:55,360 Speaker 1: operates where they run so far away. Yeah, but it's 541 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,560 Speaker 1: the hair that's closest to whatever it's running from is 542 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:01,840 Speaker 1: the first to run and everybody else follows. Is kind 543 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,400 Speaker 1: of like how a flock of birds will turn depending 544 00:31:04,440 --> 00:31:06,840 Speaker 1: on you know, which way they need to turn based 545 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,400 Speaker 1: on that bird making that decision, and the rest of 546 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,880 Speaker 1: the flock flock basically following it to bottom up, bottom 547 00:31:12,920 --> 00:31:15,760 Speaker 1: up decision making kind of thing. And so we started 548 00:31:15,760 --> 00:31:18,360 Speaker 1: to learn a lot and we know a lot about 549 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,960 Speaker 1: bottom up decision making now as opposed to when these 550 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:25,000 Speaker 1: guys were working back in the sixties, I think UM. 551 00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:27,880 Speaker 1: But in the twenty one century, that whole idea of 552 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:33,160 Speaker 1: bottom up decision making or decentralized UM decision making UM 553 00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:37,560 Speaker 1: has become a real component in in UH artificial intelligence 554 00:31:37,600 --> 00:31:40,720 Speaker 1: design because if you've listened to the End of the 555 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:42,480 Speaker 1: World with Josh Clark, you know that one of the 556 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,520 Speaker 1: hardest things in the world to do is program something 557 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:49,720 Speaker 1: to understand everything, because you have to input all the 558 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,040 Speaker 1: stuff it needs to know. Whereas if you can just 559 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:54,720 Speaker 1: kind of set up some sort of simple algorithm to 560 00:31:54,840 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 1: let the machine think for itself, you you finally got something. Yeah, 561 00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:02,440 Speaker 1: and I would imagine I didn't see this anywhere, but 562 00:32:02,440 --> 00:32:04,760 Speaker 1: it seems like this might could have some applications in 563 00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:09,800 Speaker 1: nanotechnology as well, like the idea that we could program, 564 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,640 Speaker 1: you know, billions of tiny little nanobot bugs to clean 565 00:32:13,680 --> 00:32:16,560 Speaker 1: the windows of your house every day, like a lot 566 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: of things collectively doing one bigger thing. Uh am I 567 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,880 Speaker 1: base there or could that potentially be a thing? Not 568 00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:26,560 Speaker 1: at all. I think it totally could be a thing. 569 00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:29,680 Speaker 1: It's it's anytime you have a huge amount of things 570 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:31,840 Speaker 1: that you're trying to all get to do roughly the 571 00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,720 Speaker 1: same thing, but they need to not you know, uh, 572 00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 1: redouble their efforts or um replicate their efforts. So you 573 00:32:40,400 --> 00:32:42,960 Speaker 1: don't want one cleaning one part of the window and 574 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:45,200 Speaker 1: the other one coming over and cleaning the the same 575 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:48,040 Speaker 1: part of the window that's already clean. Um. All you 576 00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:50,400 Speaker 1: have to do is figure out how to teach them 577 00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,080 Speaker 1: if if this happens, do this, and if you can 578 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,080 Speaker 1: figure out how to strip it down to a basic 579 00:32:57,280 --> 00:33:03,240 Speaker 1: enough algorithm that could conceiveable be used for just about 580 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:07,080 Speaker 1: any situation. Um, you've got the key to the universe 581 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: in your hand. Like there's actually we'll have to do 582 00:33:09,160 --> 00:33:11,720 Speaker 1: a um An episode on it one day. But I 583 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,200 Speaker 1: read an article about a guy who was I think 584 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:16,840 Speaker 1: he was a physicist back in the eighties who was like, 585 00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:21,120 Speaker 1: I think the universe is basically an operating system. That 586 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:24,640 Speaker 1: is that is that it goes down to two. There's 587 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:27,960 Speaker 1: two bits. You could say it's black and white, one 588 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,320 Speaker 1: or zero, it doesn't matter, but there are two kinds 589 00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:35,120 Speaker 1: of bits, and depending on the combinations that these things form, 590 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:41,560 Speaker 1: everything else in the universe arises from that, including consciousness, planets, slime, mold, 591 00:33:41,800 --> 00:33:44,320 Speaker 1: everything comes out of these two types of bits that 592 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:47,760 Speaker 1: basically make up the fabric of space and time, interacting 593 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:51,960 Speaker 1: with one another and increasingly sophisticated patterns. And that is 594 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,600 Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about. So if we can figure 595 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:59,800 Speaker 1: out what that that computation is, what those algorithms are 596 00:33:59,840 --> 00:34:02,520 Speaker 1: that give rise to larger and larger stuff, you can 597 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:05,360 Speaker 1: you can do anything. It's it's weird you can do 598 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:10,560 Speaker 1: increasingly sophisticated stuff. The more basic your algorithm is. It's 599 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:15,440 Speaker 1: almost a paradox. Yeah, this is like Dr Octagon stuff. 600 00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:21,000 Speaker 1: Dr Octagon. I don't know, is that right from? Yeah? 601 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:27,000 Speaker 1: He was Alfallina? You mean sure? All right? I like 602 00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:29,719 Speaker 1: Alpha Malina. I think he makes some really weird choices 603 00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 1: for parts. I'm sure somebody's like, hey, we'll give you 604 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: ten million dollars to play Doctor Octagon. I'd be like, sure, 605 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,080 Speaker 1: you got it. Where do I sign up? Yeah? I 606 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,320 Speaker 1: need to get him a movie crush because he actually 607 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,960 Speaker 1: is friends of the network. He's a friend of the network. 608 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:46,520 Speaker 1: I think he's been on The Daily's Eye Guist a 609 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,200 Speaker 1: few times, and like they booked him on some other 610 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:51,319 Speaker 1: comedy shows. I'm like, guys, they're a little Malina My 611 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,440 Speaker 1: way for real, Malina spread all over Movie Crush. You've 612 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:58,239 Speaker 1: been on daily s Eite guys twice. I've never have. 613 00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:02,960 Speaker 1: I've been on movie Crush too. Ad Miles on the 614 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:04,480 Speaker 1: movie Crush the other day and I was giving my 615 00:35:04,480 --> 00:35:07,400 Speaker 1: hard time because they haven't asked me on and twice. 616 00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,000 Speaker 1: It's hilarious. Keep it up, chuck. Yeah, he was like, 617 00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:15,280 Speaker 1: uh no, man, I was like, Miles, did he really 618 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,840 Speaker 1: you flustered him? I feel like he was on skates 619 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,200 Speaker 1: for a second here, but I let him off the hook. 620 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:22,719 Speaker 1: I'm having Jack on next week, so I'm really like 621 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:25,719 Speaker 1: going full court press here. Yeah. Miles is like man 622 00:35:25,800 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 1: beat beyond guard, chucked his not pull punches. It's funny 623 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,560 Speaker 1: because Miles, you know, as you know, is such a smart, 624 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:36,680 Speaker 1: smart guy and uh just like having a conversation with 625 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:39,080 Speaker 1: him is always amazing. And then he comes on and 626 00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:43,360 Speaker 1: he picks Mall Rats. What's his favorite movie? Was it? Really? 627 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,359 Speaker 1: That's his favorite movie of all time? Huh? I mean 628 00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:46,759 Speaker 1: that's what he picked. And he was like, hey, man, 629 00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:49,560 Speaker 1: I never said I had good tastes. It's pretty fun. 630 00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:51,560 Speaker 1: Do you have any hints of what Jack's is going 631 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:54,520 Speaker 1: to be? Well? I know it's pulp fiction because he 632 00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:57,040 Speaker 1: he had me save it like two years ago, and 633 00:35:57,080 --> 00:35:59,239 Speaker 1: I just you know, he kept slipping through the crack. 634 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:03,200 Speaker 1: So he's gonna come on next week for pulpiction. All right, 635 00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,400 Speaker 1: So let's get back to I mean, we talked about 636 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:08,960 Speaker 1: how the uh, the d D as we're gonna call it, 637 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:13,520 Speaker 1: moves around with yeah, without a the pacemaker cells. But 638 00:36:14,160 --> 00:36:17,040 Speaker 1: that original true slime mold, the big single celled one 639 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:20,560 Speaker 1: that's just made up of all the goopy cytoplasm. We 640 00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,839 Speaker 1: didn't really talk about what they do. And because if 641 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,480 Speaker 1: you don't have cell walls, you're like, well, how's this 642 00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,080 Speaker 1: stuff moving around? It's actually made up of what's called 643 00:36:29,120 --> 00:36:34,680 Speaker 1: oscillating units. And so these units oscillated different frequencies depending 644 00:36:34,719 --> 00:36:38,520 Speaker 1: what's going on, like where they are, and then what 645 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:42,360 Speaker 1: the their little neighbor oscillating units are doing. And so 646 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:45,239 Speaker 1: when they go close to food, they start oscillating and 647 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,759 Speaker 1: shaking like hey, hey, hey, I'm near some food, and 648 00:36:48,800 --> 00:36:51,120 Speaker 1: then that just sort of gets that flow. Everyone else 649 00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,960 Speaker 1: starts oscillating in a similar manner, and that gets that 650 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 1: flow of cytoplasm going in that food direction. Yeah, and 651 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:01,160 Speaker 1: so the slime mold effectively moves to the food because 652 00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,640 Speaker 1: of that that oscillating unit that looks again like a 653 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:08,520 Speaker 1: fan spreading out going to find food and then finding it, 654 00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:11,319 Speaker 1: the slime mold moves toward it or like you said, 655 00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: away from something that they don't like. Ye yes, um, 656 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,440 Speaker 1: which is pretty neat. So so those are the two things. 657 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:21,640 Speaker 1: It's moving towards food and moving away from something and um. 658 00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:24,120 Speaker 1: One of the things that they found is that slime 659 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:28,600 Speaker 1: old can actually um learn and not only learn to 660 00:37:28,680 --> 00:37:32,000 Speaker 1: like stay away from something, it can actually teach other 661 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:35,560 Speaker 1: slime mold um to stay away from it, even slime 662 00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,759 Speaker 1: mold that's never been introduced to it. Or alternately, it 663 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,319 Speaker 1: can teach this is the really the thought garter. Uh. 664 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:47,560 Speaker 1: In fact, it can teach other slime mold that something 665 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:51,080 Speaker 1: that seems harmful is actually harmless. This is a pretty 666 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:56,160 Speaker 1: cool experiment. Yeah, So these researchers put slime molds, uh. 667 00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,000 Speaker 1: They built a little tiny bridge, was very cute, and 668 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:04,000 Speaker 1: they coded this bridge and a noxious substance. It wasn't 669 00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,680 Speaker 1: harmful to them, it was harmless. It was like salt 670 00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,680 Speaker 1: or something, let's say. And then they put the little 671 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:12,120 Speaker 1: those little oat flakes on the other side as their 672 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:16,840 Speaker 1: ultimate temptation. And so these first slime olds start creeping 673 00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:19,120 Speaker 1: up to it and sort of dip in their little 674 00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,440 Speaker 1: toe in the water and saying, uh, this stuff is 675 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:26,360 Speaker 1: pretty notious. But then they learned, right, like, okay, so 676 00:38:26,400 --> 00:38:29,400 Speaker 1: it's not actually harmful. I can go across this stuff. 677 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,120 Speaker 1: And what they found was that it learned to cross 678 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:36,840 Speaker 1: this little bridge just as fast as slime molds that 679 00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:41,040 Speaker 1: were placed on bridges that didn't have any coating going on. Right, 680 00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:43,720 Speaker 1: So it said, Okay, this stuff's fine. It's he's gross, 681 00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:45,560 Speaker 1: is way too salty, but it's not gonna hurt me. 682 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:47,879 Speaker 1: So I'm gonna get to food just as fast. Right. 683 00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:52,440 Speaker 1: That's pretty amazing in enough self, but gets crazy, yes, right, 684 00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,560 Speaker 1: they we need like a banner matter nole to come 685 00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:59,520 Speaker 1: in and say that. Um. So they they take the 686 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,680 Speaker 1: slime mold and break it apart and fuse it together 687 00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,920 Speaker 1: with other slime molds that have never been exposed to 688 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,239 Speaker 1: this noxious stuff before. They're called naive and the other 689 00:39:09,239 --> 00:39:12,279 Speaker 1: ones are called habituated. And those naive ones when they 690 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:15,360 Speaker 1: encounter this noxious stuff like a salt bridge for the 691 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 1: first time, they don't approach it with trepidation. They go 692 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:22,640 Speaker 1: right across it as fast as the habituated ones that 693 00:39:22,719 --> 00:39:26,160 Speaker 1: it's fused to. This is really weird because this is 694 00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:28,359 Speaker 1: the first time the stuff is encountering it, and they 695 00:39:28,400 --> 00:39:32,920 Speaker 1: think that somehow the habituated slime molds are passing on 696 00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:35,400 Speaker 1: the information like no, no, we know it's gross, but 697 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:39,560 Speaker 1: it's actually fine to the naive slime molds. And they 698 00:39:39,600 --> 00:39:42,359 Speaker 1: figured out, Chuck, that it doesn't matter if you take 699 00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:47,320 Speaker 1: three habituated slime molds infuse them with one naive slime mold, 700 00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:50,879 Speaker 1: or take three naive slime molds and one just one 701 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:53,839 Speaker 1: habituated slime mold. It's going to approach us and move 702 00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:58,520 Speaker 1: across it just as fast as as either in either situation. Yeah, 703 00:39:58,600 --> 00:40:01,040 Speaker 1: and then they also sort of figured out how long 704 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:05,239 Speaker 1: this took. So the naive slime molds they separated after 705 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:09,799 Speaker 1: an hour of fusion with those uh habituated I'm gonna 706 00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,080 Speaker 1: call them in the no molds, and it forgot. It 707 00:40:13,200 --> 00:40:16,319 Speaker 1: forgot that the coding was harmless and it sort of 708 00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:19,120 Speaker 1: had to approach it with a little more trepidation. But 709 00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:21,280 Speaker 1: if they had been fused for three hours or more 710 00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:27,200 Speaker 1: and then separated it, it remembered. I mean it technically 711 00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:30,319 Speaker 1: can't remember, but they do have this weird sort of 712 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:34,080 Speaker 1: memory uh that works. And I think they even figured 713 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:37,200 Speaker 1: out some of this snail trail stuff that they leave 714 00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,680 Speaker 1: behind access sort of like a spatial memory, because they 715 00:40:40,719 --> 00:40:44,160 Speaker 1: come across this snail trail and say, oh, someone's already 716 00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:47,319 Speaker 1: been here before me, right, so there's no reason to 717 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:52,520 Speaker 1: go research this area because clearly wasn't food there. Yeah, 718 00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:55,480 Speaker 1: and again here's your ten minute reminder that slime mold 719 00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:58,319 Speaker 1: don't have brains or neuron So all of this is 720 00:40:58,440 --> 00:41:02,080 Speaker 1: just just astounding stuff that we're still trying to get 721 00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:04,719 Speaker 1: to the bottom up, like that habituation thing. They're like, 722 00:41:04,800 --> 00:41:06,799 Speaker 1: we don't know, we have no idea, but we're gonna 723 00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:08,800 Speaker 1: go find out and maybe in ten years we'll be 724 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:13,960 Speaker 1: able to explain it. Right, So eventually, um, you know, 725 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,080 Speaker 1: the people that are people that are hipped to the 726 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:21,279 Speaker 1: slime mold mold thing are like trying to spread them that. 727 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,000 Speaker 1: They're trying to spread the word and me, like, this 728 00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:25,600 Speaker 1: stuff is really amazing. They're doing Ted talks on it. It 729 00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:27,080 Speaker 1: It was a really good Ted talk on it, in fact, 730 00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:32,279 Speaker 1: and some coders said, hey, wait a minute, you know 731 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:34,799 Speaker 1: they're doing all this amazing stuff like the overlay of 732 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: the Tokyo subway and it's lining up perfectly. What if 733 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:42,640 Speaker 1: we actually generated code of the slime mold and kind 734 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:45,719 Speaker 1: of reverse engineered it and and we could see what 735 00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:49,520 Speaker 1: that look like and how we could use it. So yeah, 736 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:55,320 Speaker 1: this one artist named Sage Jensen basically figured out um 737 00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:58,600 Speaker 1: or took. I don't know exactly who figured out exactly 738 00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:02,560 Speaker 1: what the the slime mole old um algorithms were, but 739 00:42:02,719 --> 00:42:05,640 Speaker 1: somebody wrote them down and Sage Jensen came along and 740 00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:09,200 Speaker 1: turned them into a C plus plus code and basically 741 00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:13,520 Speaker 1: ran these things it's like algorithms, and found that these 742 00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:18,640 Speaker 1: fractals started forming that look essentially just like slime mold, 743 00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:21,880 Speaker 1: moving across the peat tradition search of food, which is 744 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:24,759 Speaker 1: pretty cool in and of itself. It was art art 745 00:42:24,800 --> 00:42:29,240 Speaker 1: project basically, but some someone on a team of astrophysicists 746 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:32,799 Speaker 1: heard about Sage Jensen's work and they used it when 747 00:42:32,800 --> 00:42:37,640 Speaker 1: they were stumped trying to figure out how to map 748 00:42:38,320 --> 00:42:42,239 Speaker 1: them the invisible matter that makes up basically the structure 749 00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:45,320 Speaker 1: of our universe, that that if we can just crack 750 00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:49,920 Speaker 1: that nut, will understand the universe exponentially better than we 751 00:42:49,960 --> 00:42:52,839 Speaker 1: do now, but we cannot figure out how to do it. 752 00:42:53,040 --> 00:42:56,440 Speaker 1: And so, just like with the ancient roads between the 753 00:42:56,520 --> 00:43:00,080 Speaker 1: Roman cities or the Tokyo subway map, someone figured it 754 00:43:00,080 --> 00:43:04,000 Speaker 1: out to use slime mold to basically try to try 755 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:07,200 Speaker 1: to create the structure of the universe that's invisible. These 756 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,200 Speaker 1: invisible filaments. Yeah, these filaments that came out of the 757 00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,160 Speaker 1: Big Bang. So I guess they went back to Sage 758 00:43:13,239 --> 00:43:17,200 Speaker 1: Jensen and said, uh, first of all, stage U C 759 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:19,400 Speaker 1: plus plus code, isn't there really just be minus code? 760 00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:22,880 Speaker 1: For being honest? And he said, that's not how it works. 761 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:27,600 Speaker 1: Get out of most great coding joke. Uh, thank you. 762 00:43:27,680 --> 00:43:30,239 Speaker 1: It's my only coding joke. And I just made it 763 00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:33,680 Speaker 1: the only coding joke I think. No, I think it's 764 00:43:33,680 --> 00:43:38,759 Speaker 1: not a bug. It's a feature, isn't that one's? Um? 765 00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:43,040 Speaker 1: So yeah, they went to Sage and they said, you're 766 00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,040 Speaker 1: an artist, but this is pretty amazing. I think we 767 00:43:45,040 --> 00:43:49,560 Speaker 1: can apply it here, and they modified it and what 768 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:53,080 Speaker 1: they did was and of course there's always oats involved. Um, 769 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:56,840 Speaker 1: they put a model in place with virtual slime mold cells, 770 00:43:56,880 --> 00:43:58,640 Speaker 1: and they put it on a map with thirty seven 771 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:04,640 Speaker 1: thousand real galaxy and they used I guess virtual piles 772 00:44:04,640 --> 00:44:08,840 Speaker 1: of food to represent the galaxies, and the bigger the galaxy, 773 00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:11,080 Speaker 1: the bigger the pile of food. And so they did 774 00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:14,680 Speaker 1: this modeling through the coating and had the virtual slime 775 00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:17,680 Speaker 1: olds seek out the most efficient way to reach this, 776 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:21,719 Speaker 1: and I guess in theory they're hoping that they get 777 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:24,680 Speaker 1: a sort of map of the universe out of it. Yeah. 778 00:44:24,880 --> 00:44:27,160 Speaker 1: So so when the slime hold was finished, they all 779 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:31,239 Speaker 1: stood background, that's amazing, How accurate is it? And they 780 00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:36,360 Speaker 1: all just realized that they had no idea how but no, surely, 781 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,520 Speaker 1: Like I think what they're doing is they're taking this 782 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:41,239 Speaker 1: as an initial, you know, guide, and then they'll go 783 00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,360 Speaker 1: back and try to figure out how to verify it. 784 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:46,799 Speaker 1: And maybe the slime old did figure out the most 785 00:44:46,800 --> 00:44:50,120 Speaker 1: efficient way to link together these galaxies, but that would 786 00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:54,319 Speaker 1: be I can't even put a word on that of 787 00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:56,920 Speaker 1: what that would how impressive that would be if the 788 00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:01,720 Speaker 1: slime mold recreated how the universe is invisibly linked together, 789 00:45:01,960 --> 00:45:04,439 Speaker 1: the structure of it. You know, what if slim old 790 00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,360 Speaker 1: does God? What if we your sleep right now and 791 00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:10,799 Speaker 1: this is all just one dream? Chuck? Uh? The other 792 00:45:10,800 --> 00:45:12,759 Speaker 1: cool thing they figured out with the slim old moving 793 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:16,319 Speaker 1: around is when they were researching them, they found that 794 00:45:16,360 --> 00:45:19,120 Speaker 1: they those mazes that they were running them through, they 795 00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:21,120 Speaker 1: went even faster through the maze when they had some 796 00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:24,200 Speaker 1: sort of noise like a bright light or something like 797 00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:25,880 Speaker 1: we said. They like to go away from things they 798 00:45:25,920 --> 00:45:30,560 Speaker 1: don't like, and that negative input of that light basically 799 00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:32,279 Speaker 1: made them say, all right, let's let's pick up the 800 00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,000 Speaker 1: pace and make make these decisions quicker and get to 801 00:45:35,040 --> 00:45:37,880 Speaker 1: that food and stop fussing around. I don't like this 802 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:40,759 Speaker 1: light staring at me. I think we kind of blew 803 00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,280 Speaker 1: some minds today. I think so. My mind's definitely been blown. 804 00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,879 Speaker 1: Did you want to cover the Amazon thing? Nope? Okay, good. 805 00:45:49,920 --> 00:45:52,440 Speaker 1: Uh that's it for slim unless you've got anything else 806 00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:54,400 Speaker 1: right now? Do you? I got nothing else. We'll have 807 00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:56,200 Speaker 1: to revisit this in ten years. And thanks to Dave 808 00:45:56,239 --> 00:45:59,759 Speaker 1: Ruse for helping us with this one. Um. And since 809 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,600 Speaker 1: I to Dave Rouse, I think chuck it means it's 810 00:46:02,719 --> 00:46:07,359 Speaker 1: time for a listener mail. Hey guys, I'm gonna call 811 00:46:07,400 --> 00:46:12,480 Speaker 1: this night trap response. I just laugh every time I 812 00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:15,200 Speaker 1: hear those words together. Now, No night trap. This is 813 00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:17,400 Speaker 1: from Aaron, Hey, guys, just finish the Night Trap video 814 00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,839 Speaker 1: Game show. Thanks for bringing it to everyone. I own 815 00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:22,799 Speaker 1: the twenty five anniversary edition. Like you said, it's not 816 00:46:22,880 --> 00:46:25,239 Speaker 1: a good game, but has its moments. One other game 817 00:46:25,239 --> 00:46:28,160 Speaker 1: worth noting is called Double Switch. It said the same 818 00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:31,680 Speaker 1: style and video camera control quality, and it started Corey Hame. 819 00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,480 Speaker 1: Perhaps arguably a little better game, but still had the 820 00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:39,200 Speaker 1: same thing going on. Really, I'm sure your research and 821 00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:40,920 Speaker 1: its lots of things that don't quite make it into 822 00:46:40,960 --> 00:46:43,439 Speaker 1: the final show. Uh, Aaron, we did not know about 823 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,640 Speaker 1: Double Switch, So nice work there. And Aaron says, I've 824 00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,239 Speaker 1: listened to so many shows it feel bit Chuck and 825 00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:51,040 Speaker 1: I are some sort of long lost brothers separated at birth. 826 00:46:51,880 --> 00:46:53,680 Speaker 1: Generally agree with just about everything he says, and I'm 827 00:46:53,680 --> 00:46:55,960 Speaker 1: always fully entertained. It would be nice to meet you 828 00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:58,080 Speaker 1: guys if you ever get another tour started and make 829 00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:01,320 Speaker 1: it back to Michigan. Keep up the good work. I 830 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:04,280 Speaker 1: finish your book, and I have the pre order poster 831 00:47:04,440 --> 00:47:07,680 Speaker 1: in my office and I've converted friends and family. So 832 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:11,280 Speaker 1: that is from Aaron in Michigan. And we're definitely gonna 833 00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:14,840 Speaker 1: start touring again. I would say probably next year, although 834 00:47:14,840 --> 00:47:18,600 Speaker 1: we haven't really talked much about it, no, but we 835 00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:20,879 Speaker 1: need to. It's definitely starting to get to be time 836 00:47:20,960 --> 00:47:24,479 Speaker 1: to to get talking, I guess, although I gotta admit 837 00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:26,800 Speaker 1: I have not missed the traveling. I've missed being on stage, 838 00:47:26,800 --> 00:47:29,359 Speaker 1: but not the traveling part. Well, you know that's what 839 00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,319 Speaker 1: they say, that's what rock stars say. It's not the heat, 840 00:47:32,400 --> 00:47:36,880 Speaker 1: it's the humidity. Now they say that. You know, you 841 00:47:36,960 --> 00:47:39,440 Speaker 1: get paid to travel, you don't get paid to play shows. 842 00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:43,560 Speaker 1: I've never heard that before, but it really makes sense. Yeah, 843 00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:45,839 Speaker 1: if you can figure out how to get paid for both, 844 00:47:45,920 --> 00:47:50,120 Speaker 1: then you're really really doing something right. Good stuff. Yeah, 845 00:47:50,120 --> 00:47:52,560 Speaker 1: and if we get back to Michigan, we've already done Detroit. 846 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:54,719 Speaker 1: We've had a lot of calls over here for ann Arbor, 847 00:47:54,800 --> 00:47:59,040 Speaker 1: so maybe that's where we go. Yes, um, well who 848 00:47:59,080 --> 00:48:02,120 Speaker 1: is that again? Aaron? Aaron? That's what I was gonna guess. 849 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:04,359 Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Aaron. That was a great email. Thanks 850 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,040 Speaker 1: for the Corey Hame reference and all that stuff. And 851 00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:08,560 Speaker 1: if you want to get in touch with us, like 852 00:48:08,640 --> 00:48:11,320 Speaker 1: Aaron did, you can send us an email to Stuff 853 00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:17,560 Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you should Know 854 00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:20,440 Speaker 1: is a production of I Heart Radio For more podcasts 855 00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:23,880 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, 856 00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:25,840 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.