Nature · Study 037
Physarum Transit
Six thousand simulated slime mould cells follow each other's trails and self-organise into a branching transport network. Feed it with your pointer.
What you're looking at
Each agent leaves a trail as it moves and sniffs the trail map at three points ahead: left, centre and right. It turns toward the strongest scent. The trail map is blurred and faded every frame. Positive feedback does the rest: popular routes thicken into veins, unused ones evaporate.
The idea behind it
The real organism, Physarum polycephalum, is a single giant cell with no nervous system. In a well known 2010 experiment, researchers placed oat flakes in the layout of cities around Tokyo and the mould connected them with a network comparable in efficiency to the actual rail system.
Try this
Move the pointer to leave food. Veins bend toward it and new junctions form.
