The slime mold Physarum polycephalum is a well-established model organism within fields of biology, physics and computing. It is also increasingly employed within art and design disciplines, pedagogic practices and public engagement activities as a vehicle for exploring questions of intelligence, agency and emergence. This work was presented at PhysNet 2015.

In laboratory experiments we demonstrate that protoplasmic tubes of acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum show current versus voltage profiles consistent with memristive systems. This result complements previous findings on memristive properties of other living systems (human skin and blood and leaves) and contributes to development of self-growing bioelectronic circuits.

The contractility of actomyosin gels is the basis for a variety of cellular motility phenomena. We present here a mechanical analysis of contractile gels. By making certain hypotheses on the chemical regulation of cytogel contraction we formulate a model for the rhythmic contractions of plasmodia in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum which is in accord with a number of experimental observations.