Brainy Blob

I’ve been flirting with the idea of making an AMOEBA CARD for the Green Wisdom Deck.  This early creature is what biolgists call a “proto-animal,” and somehow I felt intuitively important to include it.  As synchronicity would have it, I open the NY Times “Science” section today and there’s a headline that says, “Slime Mold Proves To Be a Brainy Blob.”  Let’s hear it for the amoeba!

The first paragraph of the article is all you need to know. “Researchers in Japan have shown that a slime mold can design a network that is as efficient as one developed by humans over many years:  the Tokyo rail system.  Furthermore, the slime mold can build its network in a day.”

Oh, our human arrogance.