Editing Slime mold (section)

=== Traffic system inspirations ===

[[File:Physarum polycephalum network.jpg|thumb|''Physarum polycephalum'' network grown in a period of 26 hours (6 stages shown) to simulate greater [[Tokyo]]'s rail network<ref name="Tero Takagi Saigusa Ito 2010"/>]]

[[Atsushi Tero]] and colleagues grew ''Physarum'' in a flat wet dish, placing the mold in a central position representing Tokyo, and oat flakes surrounding it corresponding to the locations of other major cities in the Greater Tokyo Area. As ''Physarum'' avoids bright light, light was used to simulate mountains, water and other obstacles in the dish. The mold first densely filled the space with plasmodia, and then thinned the network to focus on efficiently connected branches. The network closely resembled [[Tokyo subway|Tokyo's rail system]].<ref name="Tero Takagi Saigusa Ito 2010">{{cite journal |last1=Tero |first1=A. |last2=Takagi |first2=S. |last3=Saigusa |first3=T. |last4=Ito |first4=K. |last5=Bebber |first5=D.P. |last6=Fricker |first6=M.D. |last7=Yumiki |first7=K. |last8=Kobayashi |first8=R. |last9=Nakagaki |first9=T. |display-authors=3 |title=Rules for biologically inspired adaptive network design |journal=Science |volume=327 |issue=5964 |pages=439–442 |date=January 2010 |pmid=20093467 |doi=10.1126/science.1177894 |url=http://wiki.cs.unm.edu/pibbs/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=slimemold.pdf |s2cid=5001773 |bibcode=2010Sci...327..439T |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130421004038/http://wiki.cs.unm.edu/pibbs/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=slimemold.pdf |archive-date=2013-04-21 }}
* {{cite web |last=Yong |first=Ed |date=January 21, 2010 |title=Slime mould attacks simulates Tokyo rail network |website=ScienceBlogs |url=http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2010/01/21/slime-mould-attacks-simulates-tokyo-rail-network/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |vauthors=Christiansen B |work=Technovelgy |url=http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2756 |title=Slime Mold Network Engineering |date=25 January 2010 }}</ref> ''P. polycephalum'' was used in experimental laboratory approximations of motorway networks of 14 geographical areas: Australia, Africa, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Iberia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, UK and US.<ref>{{cite web |last=Marks |first=P. |work=New Scientist |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527426-300-designing-highways-the-slime-mould-way/ |title=Designing highways the slime mould way |date=6 January 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Adamatzky |first1=Andrew |author1-link=Andrew Adamatzky |last2=Akl |first2=S. |last3=Alonso-Sanz |first3=R. |last4=van Dessel |first4=W. |last5=Ibrahim |first5=Z. |last6=Ilachinski |first6=A. |last7=Jones |first7=J. |last8=Kayem|first8=A.V.D.M. |last9=Martinez |first9=G.J. |last10=de Oliveira |first10=P. |last11=Prokopenko |first11=M. |last12=Schubert |first12=T. |last13=Sloot |first13=P. |last14=Strano |first14=E. |last15=Yang |first15=X.-S. |display-authors=3 |title=Are motorways rational from slime mould's point of view? |journal=International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems |year=2013 |volume=28|issue=3 |pages=230–248 |doi=10.1080/17445760.2012.685884 |arxiv=1203.2851 |s2cid=15534238 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Parr |first=D. |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/feb/18/slime-mould-rail-road-transport-routes |title=Cities in motion: how slime mould can redraw our rail and road maps |date=18 February 2014 }}</ref> The filamentary structure of ''P. polycephalum'' forming a network to food sources is similar to the large scale [[galaxy filament]] structure of the [[universe]]. This observation has led astronomers to use simulations based on the behaviour of slime molds to inform their search for [[dark matter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/slime-mold-simulations-used-to-map-dark-matter-holding-universe-together |title=Slime Mold Simulations Used to Map Dark Matter |work=NASA |date=10 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wenz |first=J. |date=12 March 2020 |url=https://astronomy.com/news/2020/03/slime-mold-helps-astronomers-map-the-universes-dark-matter|title=Slime mold helps astronomers map dark matter |work=Astronomy magazine }}</ref>