Slime molds are single-celled organisms with surprising intelligence. They don’t have brains and look like forest jelly, but can still make complex decisions involving what direction to grow in order to get the most food. The California Academy of Sciences’ bioGraphic took a look at the science of slime molds in the video below, as spotted by Atlas Obscura.
In order to see how slime molds figure out where to move, researchers recorded the organisms in Petri dishes for 24 to 48 hours and stitched the footage into timelapse. When in search of food, the slime molds shoot out little tendrils that explore the surrounding area, figuring out where food is most abundant. The slime mold itself pulses—albeit very slowly—during the growth process, as you can see in the video. It happens over the course of a minute, so you can really only see it in timelapse.
You’ll never look at these seemingly innocuous organisms the same way again.
[h/t Atlas Obscura]