Free Republic

Using the electrically conductive single-cell organism known as "slime mold," the researchers created a watch that only works when the organism is healthy, requiring the user to provide it with food and care. They then tested how this living device affected its wearer's attitude toward technology, changing the usual one-way service into a mutually beneficial partnership. The watches were designed and built by Lu to tell time and measure the wearer's heart rate. However, the second function is dependent upon the health and unique characteristics of Physarum polycephalum, a species of slime mold sometimes called "the blob," for its rapid...

The ability to store and recover information gives an organism a clear advantage when searching for food or avoiding harmful environments, and has been traditionally linked to organisms that have a nervous system. A new study authored by Mirna Kramar (MPIDS) and Prof. Karen Alim (TUM and MPIDS) challenges this view by uncovering surprising abilities of a highly dynamic, single-celled organism to store and retrieve information about its environment. Physarum polycephalum has been puzzling researchers for many decades. Existing at the crossroads between the kingdoms of animals, plants and fungi, this unique organism provides insight into the early evolutionary history...

In a January 22 Al-Majd TV interview, Palestinian scholar Samir Said talked about what he called the "criminal and Satanic nature" of the Jews and said that they were "the enemies of Mankind," who had "killed 70 prophets in a single day." Said is a member of the Jerusalem Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Following are excerpts: Interviewer: Let's talk about the well-known history of Jewish crimes, since the days of the Israelites, and their crimes against the most noble people of those times – the prophets and messengers, against whom they committed grave crimes, including...

WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- Remember the robot in Terminator 2 that oozed through tiny cracks and then reformed itself? So does the U.S. Defense Department. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency last week issued a request for proposals to develop a "chemical robot" made of soft, flexible materials that can squeeze through openings smaller than its static dimensions and then reconstitute itself to perform a task military task. "Nature provides many examples of ChemBot functionality. Many soft creatures, including mice, octopi, and insects, readily traverse openings barely larger than their largest "hard" component, via a variety of reversible mechanisms,"...