
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Becky Ripley and Emily Knight celebrate the intelligence of a brainless slime mould. As single-cell protists, with no brain and no nervous system, slime moulds do not 'think' in human terms, but they can calculate and navigate complex systems with incredible efficiency and objectivity. With some help from a few oat flakes, because slime mould loves oats.
One species in particular, Physarum Polycephalum, has proven itself to outwit us time and time again, from solving complex urban transport problems to mapping the structures of the cosmic web. In doing so, it totally overthrows our human definition of intelligence, where we have positioned ourselves at the top of a big biological hierarchy. From the bottom up, slime mould is starting to uproot the whole system.
Featuring Merlin Sheldrake, writer of 'Entangled Life', and experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats.
By BBC Radio 44.9
1010 ratings
Becky Ripley and Emily Knight celebrate the intelligence of a brainless slime mould. As single-cell protists, with no brain and no nervous system, slime moulds do not 'think' in human terms, but they can calculate and navigate complex systems with incredible efficiency and objectivity. With some help from a few oat flakes, because slime mould loves oats.
One species in particular, Physarum Polycephalum, has proven itself to outwit us time and time again, from solving complex urban transport problems to mapping the structures of the cosmic web. In doing so, it totally overthrows our human definition of intelligence, where we have positioned ourselves at the top of a big biological hierarchy. From the bottom up, slime mould is starting to uproot the whole system.
Featuring Merlin Sheldrake, writer of 'Entangled Life', and experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats.

863 Listeners

2,113 Listeners

1,952 Listeners

4,873 Listeners

480 Listeners

410 Listeners

756 Listeners

227 Listeners

471 Listeners

346 Listeners

143 Listeners

3,245 Listeners

116 Listeners

907 Listeners

16 Listeners