Slime mold mimics Canadian highway network

Unusual experiment provides proof nature computes

2012-03-27

(Press-News.org) Queen's University professor Selim Akl has provided additional proof to the theory that nature computes. Dr. Akl (School of Computing) placed rolled oats on a map of Canada, covering the major urban areas. One urban area held the slime mold. The slime mold reached out for the food, creating thin tubes that eventually formed a network mirroring the Canadian highway system. "By showing species as low as slime mold can compute a network as complex as the Canadian highway system, we were able to provide some evidence that nature computes," says Dr. Akl. Moving forward, Dr. Akl would like to collect more examples to support his claim that nature computes. He explains, for example, that the leaf of a plant uses 99 per cent of the light it receives from the sun while the best engineered solar cells have an efficiency of only 35 per cent. Research into this area could lead to important practical applications. ###Dr. Akl's study, co-authored by Andrew Adamatzky (University of the West of England, United Kingdom) is being published in the International Journal of Natural Computing Research and he is also serving on the program committee of a natural computing conference being held in Spain later this year. Watch the YouTube video of the slime mold experiment.

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Stem cell study aids quest for motor neurone disease therapies

2012-03-27

A breakthrough using cutting-edge stem cell research could speed up the discovery of new treatments for motor neurone disease (MND). The international research team has created motor neurones using skin cells from a patient with an inherited form of MND. The study discovered that abnormalities of a protein called TDP-43, implicated in more than 90 per cent of cases of MND, resulted in the death of motor neurone cells. This is the first time that scientists have been able to see the direct effect of abnormal TDP-43 on human motor neurons. The study, led by the ...

US economic woes ripple all the way to Latin America, U-M study shows

2012-03-27

The national recession didn't just hit people living in the U.S. – it's made it more difficult for people to pay for medical bills in poor countries like Honduras, according to a new University of Michigan study. As employment opportunities have dried up for Latino immigrants in the U.S., so has their ability to send financial assistance to chronically ill family members in their home countries, according to a U-M study published online this week ahead of print in the International Journal of Health Services. "Remittance payments from relatives living in the United ...

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2012-03-27

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Tiny reader makes fast, cheap DNA sequencing feasible

2012-03-27

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Wind energy enhancement: UC research establishes real-world wind turbine performance metrics

2012-03-27

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Geologists correct a rift in Africa

2012-03-27

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Pass the lycopene: Scientist can protect supplements inside food

2012-03-27

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University food scientist has developed a way to encase nutritional supplements in food-based products so that one day consumers might be able to sprinkle vitamins, antioxidants and other beneficial compounds right onto their meals. Srinivas Janaswamy, a research assistant professor of food science, said many of the nutraceuticals, or nutritional supplements, added to foods today are not structurally stable. Heat, light, oxygen and other external factors could degrade the supplements, rendering them ineffective. "There are many methods ...

Slime mold mimics Canadian highway network

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