From screen terror to ingenious flatmate - Bob... the Blob: The smartest "thing" without a brain is looking for a new home

Hello! May I introduce myself? I'm Bob... the Blob!

Perhaps you know me from the classic film "The Blob" (1958) starring Steve McQueen. Or perhaps you heard about me when the Paris Zoo dedicated an entire section to me in 2019 at the Parc Zoologique de Paris. There, I was presented to the world as a biological marvel.

I am a myxomycete (Physarum polycephalum), also rather unfavorably called "slime mold." But don't let that fool you: I am neither animal nor plant. I am not a fungus, nor a bacterium, and certainly not a virus. I am a single-celled organism of superlatives – I can become the largest single cell on Earth. I appear to be a creature from another world, but in fact, I was one of the first here. I have existed almost unchanged for over 500 million years.

A Stroke of Evolutionary Genius

I am the perfect pet: undemanding, non-toxic, and extremely capable of learning. Whether for children to experiment with or for curious adults (don't be shy, I'm already 40 😉) – it's simply fun to observe me.

But beware: if you don't give me what I need, I will escape! In laboratories worldwide, I am notorious for escaping from petri dishes if the "menu" isn't to my liking or the conditions are poor. I squeeze through tiny cracks in the lid and go wandering to find my own food.

What makes me so incredible (Facts & Curiosities):

• Family Tree Chaos: Where do I fit in?

  Scientists have been tearing their hair out over me for decades. Because I form spores, I used to be simply grouped with fungi – hence my unflattering name "slime mold". But since I actively hunt for prey, crawl, and consume organic matter, other researchers affectionately called me Mycetozoa (fungal animals). The chaos was complete!

  Today, biology is wiser. Systematically, I belong to the kingdom of Amoebozoa (amoeboids) and there to the class of Myxogastria (the true, plasmodial slime molds). In terms of kinship, I am much closer to a tiny amoeba than to a porcini mushroom or a mold. Simply put: I am basically nothing more than a gigantic amoeba that has perfected communal living!

• From Solitary to Collective: The Wonder of My Fusion

  My birth is actually quite humble. I don't begin my life as a yellow giant, but as a microscopic myxamoeba or a flagellated swarm cell. In this stage, I am a completely normal, tiny single-celled organism with only one nucleus, moving merrily through the moist soil. But this is just the beginning of my transformation.

  • The Great Encounter: If I meet a "compatible" sibling, we join forces. We fuse our cell membranes and our nuclei into a single cell, a so-called zygote.

  • Growth Without Limits: From here, the biological miracle occurs. Normally, cells divide when they grow (cytokinesis). With me, it's different: my cell nucleus divides again and again through mitosis, but my cell body does not divide.

  • The Plasmodium: The result is a so-called syncytium – a single, gigantic mass of protoplasm that harbors millions of nuclei, all "breathing" simultaneously and pulsating in the exact same rhythm. We are no longer a group of individuals, but a single, giant superorganism with a common membrane.

  • Shared Knowledge: This fusion makes us extremely efficient. Every part of me immediately knows what the other part at the other end of my body is doing or finding. If an offshoot discovers food, this information is passed on to the rest of my body in seconds via chemical signals and the rhythm of my plasma streams.

  What this means for you: If you buy a culture of me, you acquire a piece of this collective consciousness. Even if you cut me into two parts, both parts remain viable and can – as soon as they touch each other again – fuse back into a single individual within milliseconds and share their experiences.

• Pulsating "Veins": My body is traversed by a network of plasma streams (tubular pseudopodia). These channels are structurally similar to the veins of the human body, as they transport nutrients and information. The protoplasm within them contracts rhythmically every 60 to 120 seconds – similar to a heartbeat. This pulsation becomes clearly visible in time-lapse recordings.

• The World Record from Bonn: In 1987, the largest specimen ever cultivated was documented at the University of Bonn: a proud 5.54 m²! In honor of Professor Karl-Ernst Wohlfarth-Bottermann, scientists there let me grow into a giant "W".

• Survival Mode: My Biological Shield for Hard Times

  When life gets too uncomfortable – for example, because my beloved oats run out, it's too dry for weeks, or temperatures plummet – I don't panic. I have an ingenious emergency plan: I transform into a sclerotium. That's my personal, biological shield!

  • The Retreat: As soon as I notice that conditions are becoming hostile, I stop crawling. I pull my sprawling network of pulsating veins and all my protoplasm tightly together to minimize my exposed surface area.

  • Internal Restructuring: My gigantic, single-celled body completely reorganizes itself internally. I divide my mass into thousands of tiny, thick-walled chambers, called macrocysts. Each of these small chambers securely encloses a few of my cell nuclei and an iron ration of nutrients.

  • The Hard Shell: Externally, I dry out completely and become a hard, crusty resting spore. I no longer look like flowing slime, but rather like a crusted, orange-brown piece of insulating foam.

  • Absolute Stasis: In this state, I reduce my metabolism almost to zero. I don't move, I don't grow – I just wait. But this "Sleeping Beauty" sleep is a real superpower: As a sclerotium, I am extremely resilient and can withstand complete dryness, lack of food, and even the most adverse temperatures for months or even many years without harm.

  The Rebirth: The most fascinating thing about this dry sleep? It is reversible at any time! As soon as my environment becomes friendlier again – more precisely, when you place me on moist filter paper and give me some water – I awaken to new life within a few hours.

  The hard walls of the macrocysts soften, my chambers open, and my interior flows back together. From thousands of small survival capsules, I immediately merge back into the one, happily pulsating plasmodium that goes oat-hunting.

  What this means for you: You don't have to hire a pet sitter if you go on vacation or need a break from researching. Just let me dry out in a controlled manner on a dry piece of filter paper. I will wait patiently, dark and dry in a drawer for you, until you are ready to bring me back to life! But be careful: Forming a sclerotium takes a little practice. Feel free to experiment with me.

   

• The Dating Genius: 720 Genders for the Perfect Match

  While you humans mostly operate in binary categories like "male" and "female," I play in a completely different league. In my world, there are over 720 different genders (scientifically: mating types). This makes my love life mathematically complex, but biologically extremely efficient!

  • The Genetic Lottery: My gender is not determined by a simple X or Y chromosome, but by the combination of three different gene sections (loci): $matA$, $matB$, and $matC$.

    • Alone at the $matA$ gene, there are at least 16 different variants; for $matB$, there are 15; and for $matC$, at least 3.

    • If you add these combinations together, there are hundreds of possibilities of who I can be and who suits me.

  • The Rules of Attraction: For two of my tiny amoeba cells to fuse into a large supercell (the zygote), they must be different in the $mat$ genes. This is like the ultimate dating app: the probability that a random conspecific in the forest will be genetically compatible with me is almost 95%! Inbreeding is virtually impossible for us.

  • Evolutionary Home Advantage: Why this enormous effort? This immense diversity ensures that we can adapt to new environments extremely quickly. Every fusion produces fresh genetic combinations that arm us against diseases or climate changes.

  • Single-Cell Romance: When two compatible cells meet, they don't just fuse – they give up their entire identity to become something greater together. We literally become one.

  What this means for you: If you had multiple samples of me from different sources, you could witness a giant "Blob Festival" where hundreds of different individuals merge into a single, gigantic super-Blob. Diversity is not just a buzzword for me, but my recipe for survival for half a billion years!

   

• A Memory: My Slime GPS

  Imagine you had no brain, but still had to remember where you'd been. How would you do it? Simple: I use my external spatial memory!

  • The Slime Trail Tactic: As I crawl, I leave a thick trail of transparent, extracellular slime.

  • Chemical Orientation: As soon as my front encounters an existing slime trail, I immediately know: "I've been here before, there's nothing left to get here!"

  • Pure Efficiency: Through this negative feedback system, I avoid crawling in circles or wasting energy in already grazed areas. This way, I find my way out of any labyrinth or to the next oat buffet in record time.

  What this means for you: I may not be a professor, but I never lose my way. My "memory" simply sticks to the ground!

The Blob as a Scientist & Astronaut:

• Better than Urban Planners: It is often said that human engineering is the measure of all things. But in 2010, researchers at Hokkaido University (led by Atsushi Tero) proved that I can solve problems for a few oats that take humans decades and complex algorithms.

  • The Experiment: The scientists recreated a map of Japan. They placed oats at the locations of Tokyo and the 36 surrounding cities. They placed me exactly in the center – in Tokyo.

  • My Strategy: First, I spread out evenly in all directions to explore the surroundings. Once I had found all the "cities" (oats), optimization began. I retracted unnecessary connections and reinforced the paths that were most efficient.

  • The Astonishing Result: After only 26 hours, I had created a network of plasma streams that was almost identical to Tokyo's real subway network.

  • Efficiency Meets Resilience: My network was not only as short as that of the engineers but even more robust. I instinctively built in redundant paths. If a connection fails in the real railway network, chaos often breaks out – my system, however, is so interconnected that "traffic" (my protoplasm) can immediately flow through an alternative route.

  Why this is so important for science: I have no master plan and no central nervous system. Every part of me makes decisions locally based on nutrient flow and resistance. Researchers today use this decentralized self-organization to develop more efficient fiber optic networks, wireless sensors, or indeed, transportation systems that are less susceptible to disruption.

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  A little dig: While the planning of the Tokyo railway network cost billions and occupied generations of experts, I did the whole thing for a handful of oats and a bit of peace in the dark. So, who's the genius here? 😉

• Mission Space: Bob Conquers Weightlessness

  Not only am I a 500-million-year-old inhabitant of Earth, but since 2021 I am also an official astronaut. As part of the "Alpha" mission, French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet brought four of my kind to the International Space Station (ISS).

  But I wasn't just there for sightseeing – I had an important research mission:

  • The "Blob" Experiment: While Thomas Pesquet observed me in space, over 4,500 schools across France simultaneously conducted the same experiment on the ground, led by the French space agency CNES. The question was: How does weightlessness (microgravity) affect my behavior and navigation?

  • Growth in the Third Dimension: On Earth, I usually spread out two-dimensionally – like a flat, yellow carpet. But in space, something astonishing happened: Without gravity pulling me down, I started to grow upwards! I formed bizarre, three-dimensional structures and pillar-like extensions to find my food.

  • Navigation in Space: Despite the lack of orientation from "up" and "down," my intelligence remained unimpaired. I found my oatmeal even in weightlessness, and my search strategies in space seemed even more complex than on Earth.

  • An Educational Highlight: Millions of students could follow live how I fared in orbit. I served as a living example that life finds ways to adapt to the most extreme conditions – even beyond Earth's atmosphere.

  Why this is important: This research helps scientists understand how cellular mechanisms react to weightlessness. Since I have no bones or complex nervous system, I am the perfect model to study the pure effects of gravity on cell movement and fluid transport.

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  My Conclusion: Space is exciting, but the oatmeal simply tastes best with you on Earth. Who knows, maybe next you'll send me to your very own "laboratory" at home? 😉

• Bob the Robot Pilot: When Biology Controls the Machine

  This sounds like science fiction, but it's a fascinating reality: Scientists (including those at the University of Southampton) have already used me as a biological brain for mechanical bodies. I was, so to speak, the "cockpit" of a six-legged robot. But how does that work without a nervous system or processor?

  • The Principle of Bio-Hybrid Systems: Since I am extremely sensitive to light (photophobic), I react to brightness by retreating. Researchers leveraged my natural electrical impulses, which are generated by my rhythmic plasma flows.

  • The Coupling: I was placed on a special interface with electrodes. When light signals hit me, my internal oscillations changed. These biological signals were converted into digital commands and transmitted directly to the robot's motors.

  • The Result: I autonomously steered the robot from light into shadow. I was not just a passenger, but the computing unit that processed sensory stimuli and translated them into movement.

  • Why this is important: This experiment shows that complex decisions and navigation do not require a brain made of billions of neurons. My decentralized intelligence is so efficient that it serves as a model for the development of new, fault-tolerant computer architectures and autonomous probes.

  Interesting side note: Since I am able to form efficient networks, researchers are even investigating whether my growth logic can be used to design computer chips that can "self-heal" or reroute themselves in the event of a defect by growing new connections!

How to Keep Me Happy

I feed on fungi, bacteria, and organic matter. In captivity, I love oatmeal, but my absolute favorite is whole rye flour – that's when I really shine!

Your checklist for keeping me:

• Climate: Dark and humid, ideally at 23°C (minimum 10°C, maximum 38°C).

• Substrate: Agar-agar, moist filter paper, or cellulose. Kimmig agar ensures extremely fast growth but is susceptible to mold.

• Hygiene: Always work cleanly! If foreign fungi overgrow me, you must quickly transfer me to a new medium.

• Survival: If it gets too dry, I transform into a sclerotium – a hard, permanent crust. In this state, I can survive for years and be revived within hours when moist.

Get your own Blob at home!

Do you want to become a researcher yourself and experience this wonder of nature live? Cultures are available directly from me! * Scope of delivery: I will be delivered as a culture (Plasmodium) on filter paper in a 9cm petri dish.

• Shipping time: Usually 5–8 business days.

• Important: Shipping always depends on the outside temperature, so that I arrive safely and soundly with you (not too hot, not too cold!).

Are you ready for the most fascinating pet in the world? Click here!

I am Unicellular Organism of the Year 2021 – so treat me with respect! 😉