Date of Submission

Fall 2023

Academic Program

Biology

Project Advisor 1

Felicia Keesing

Abstract/Artist's Statement

The goal of this paper has been to find out how slime mold pathways change when presented with environmental challenges and/or imbalances of resources. Many studies have demonstrated Physarum polycephalum’s ability to find efficient and resilient pathways between food sources in a relatively short amount of time (often within 72 hours). Based on previous studies showing that slime mold is extremely good at solving mazes and finding very efficient routes between places, it could be used to implement more efficient transportation systems than we currently have in place in the US or in any other country. In this introduction we will explore the basic biology of PP, how it has been used in studies, how Phys. polycephalum relates to transportation systems, and where issues within transportation systems arise from.

Open Access Agreement

On-Campus only

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Download

This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.

Bard Off-campus Download

Bard College faculty, staff, and students can login from off-campus by clicking on the Off-campus Download button and entering their Bard username and password.

Share

COinS