Slime molds will become experimental organisms when in microgravity.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, FRANCE — Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) prepare to welcome the most unusual guest. Blob slid into orbit on Tuesday (10/8).
Reported from France 24, Wednesday (11/8), Blob is an organism that is not classified, not a plant, animal or fungus.
Blob is Physarum polycephalum, a type of slime mold. Slime molds have long fascinated scientists and will now be part of a unique experiment carried out simultaneously by astronauts hundreds of kilometers above Earth and by hundreds of thousands of French school students.
Slime molds first appeared on Earth about 500 million years ago. Blob consists of a single cell with many nuclei.
While most organisms grow and reproduce through cell division and multiplication, Physarum polycephalum no.
“This is a single cell that grows without ever dividing,” explains Pierre Ferrand, associate professor of Earth and life sciences to the French Space Agency (CNES), one of the people behind the project.
“While most organisms are content with two sexes, slime molds have more than 720. These are ‘with drawers’ organisms that tell us that life is made up of many originalities,” he said.
What can single cells do?
Slime molds have no mouth, feet or brain. But despite this apparent weakness, the fungus eats, grows, moves albeit very slowly and has an amazing learning ability.
Because the slime mold’s DNA floats freely within its cell walls—rather than in the nucleus—it can “take out” parts of itself at will. And a few pieces of sclerotia will begin their odyssey aboard the ISS refueling freighter.
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