How much do you know about protists? How much do you know about their behaviour and intelligence? I’m gonna guess very little, as that’s where I was not that long ago. The world of these obscure creatures is incredibly complex and fascinating, as they interact with their environment and make decisions and weigh up risks. 

In this episode, I interview researcher Alid Al-Asmar about slime moulds (the “blob”) ciliates (unicellular beings with eyelashes) and his personal favourite - nematodes (little round worms).

Dom joins me for the end for a comparison of his intelligence to that of protists. Brutal, but demonstrates my point. 

Below are the articles I cite in the show.

Does being multi-headed make you better at solving problems?

ScienceDirect.comhttps://www.sciencedirect.comDoes being multi-headed make you better at solving problems? A survey of ...

A ciliate memorises the geometry of a swimming area

royalsocietypublishing.orghttps://royalsocietypublishing.orgA ciliate memorizes the geometry of a swimming arena | The Royal Society

C. Elegant transfers across a gap under an electric field as dispersal behaviour

National Institutes of Health (.gov)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.govCaenorhabditis elegans transfers across a gap under an electric field as ...

Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism

Naturehttps://www.nature.comMaze-solving by an amoeboid organism

Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design

Science | AAAShttps://www.science.orgRules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design

Geometrical preference of anchoring sites in the unicellular organism Stentor coeruleus

PNAShttps://www.pnas.orgGeometrical preference of anchoring sites in the unicellular organism ...