behind the blob
Biology, Data Analysis
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With the aim of studying the effects of global warming on certain organisms, the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) has launched a citizen science project of unprecedented scale led by Audrey Dussutour, CNRS biologist at the Center for Research on animal cognition.
Physarum polycephalum, more commonly known as blob, is a unicellular species of slime mold. Neither animal, nor plant nor fungus, this single-celled organism is able to move, learn, solve labyrinths and transmit information.
During this scientific project, various protocols with temperature variations were tested on several strains of Blob, to observe how the rise in temperature could impact their growth and their speed of development. Spoiler: global warming will most certainly impact this species.
