Andrew Adamatzky: Simulating strange attraction of acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum to herbal tablets.

Most models of animal foraging and consumer choice assume that individuals make choices based on the absolute value of items and are therefore 'economically rational'. However, frequent violations of rationality by animals, including humans, suggest that animals use comparative valuation rules. Are comparative valuation strategies a consequence of the way brains process information, or are they...

In the paper, we show that biological substrate in the form of Physarum polycephalum can be used to simulate simple rule-based systems. To extort a proper behavior from the substrate, appropriate distribution of stimuli (attractants and/or repellents) is required. To model behavior of the substrate and then program Physarum machine (a biological computing device experimentally implemented in th...

Slime mould Physarum polycephalum builds up sophisticated networks to transport nutrients between distant part of its extended body. The slime mould’s protoplasmic network is optimised for maximum coverage of nutrients yet minimum energy spent on transportation of the intra-cellular material. In laboratory experiments with P. polycephalum we represent Canadian major urban areas with rolled oats...

The field of computer music is evolving in tandem with advances in computer science. Our research is interested in how the developing field of unconventional computation may provide new pathways for music and music technologies. In this paper we present the development of a system for harnessing the biological computing substrate Physarum Polycephalum for sonification. Physarum Polycephalum is ...

Physarum polycephalum slime mould can modify polyaniline (PANI) features due to its internal activity. We created networks with different conductivity made by the slime mould on PANI substrates. Thus, Physarum’s growth results in changing the conductivity state of PANI layers, providing negative and positive patterning of the samples. A spectrophotometric scanner is here exploited to investigat...

Isoacceptors of Physarum polycephalum Ala-, Arg-, Glu-, Gln-, Gly-, Ile-, Leu-, Lys-, Ser-, Thr-, and Val-tRNAs were resolved by reverse-phase chromatography and isolated, and their codon recognition properties were determined in a ribosomal binding assay. Codon assignments were made to most isoacceptors, and they are summarized along with those determined in other studies from Escherichia coli...

The direction of replication of DNA within replicons of Physarum polycephalum was studied by pulse-labelling with 5-bromouracil-deoxyriboside (BrdUrd) and 3H-adenosine deoxyriboside (dAdo), followed by ultraviolet- (UV) -photolysis and analysis of molecular weights of single strand DNA fragments on alkaline sucrose gradients. Newly made DNA within replicons at all stages of completion is split ...