We are traveling in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Forest ecologist Steve Stephenson bends over a decaying stump and parts a curtain of moss so I can see a tiny stand of what looks like ...

Dictyostelium discoideum is a widely studied social amoeba that exhibits a remarkable transition from solitary life to a coordinated multicellular existence. Under conditions of nutrient deprivation, ...

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are worm-like parasites of the genus Meloidogyne that are found in many parts of the world. They attack the roots of plants, causing them to wilt and eventually die. It is ...

The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil microbe that produces diverse natural products with potential antibiotic activity. Previously, three chlorinated compounds had been detected ...

Recent studies have increasingly challenged the traditional view that cognitive processes are exclusively the domain of organisms with nervous systems. Research into slime molds and other unicellular ...

Slime research may not be the sexiest science, but produces some truly wild results. So wild, in fact, a new study reconfigures our understanding of not only animal intelligence, but also the very ...

Our past experiences help us navigate future obstacles, and it seems that even some organisms without a brain have that skill. Though slime molds do not have a nervous system, they can store and ...

In this new segment, we’ll feature one creature a month, and try to convince you that it’s worthy of the coveted Charismatic Creature title. By “creature” we mean almost anything—animals, viruses, ...

Through the looking glass: Artist Stephanie Rentschler recently unveiled SlimeMoldCrypt, an interactive installation where art meets science by using biology to generate stronger encryption keys.