Science is not for the impatient

[sovay]

So I spent most of my Yom Kippur afternoon at the doctor's, which was completely unnecessary. (I aten't dead.) On the bright side, I am about to leave for break-fast with derspatchel and I still love science:

One question never far from scientists' minds is how events might unfold were a giant slime mould to emerge in the Far East and embark on global domination . . . After a series of simple experiments involving agar, a globe, a bag of oats, and an obliging slime mould, an answer, of sorts, is now at hand.

I remember when slime mold modeled Tokyo's railways. I had no idea it felt so strongly about the Silk Road.

Happy new year!

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year!

Slime molds--the first transit planners. Planning roadways from before there were horses, let alone carts and wheels.

[gwynnega]

Happy new year!

I love that the URL of that article is "slime-mould-world."

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

presumably because there's a bunch of good capitols in the way?
Anyway, glad you're not dead, and happy new year!

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Your science fair project sounds a lot more hazardous than mine, but probably equally as gross: my father obtained real human teeth for me (being a dentist), which I then proceeded to submerge in jars of various fluids drunk by humans (sodas, juices, water, etc.) over a period of some weeks to determine the enamel deterioration rates caused by each!

Glad the migraine didn't eat you. They do try very hard.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm very glad you aten't.

Happy break-fast, and happy new year!

I suppose I'm glad to know that sime mould likes the Silk Road as much as it likes the Tokyo railway system.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

If I had it to do over again, I would have become a mycologist.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The slime mould working at the Unconventional Computing Centre is a colleague of mine, it seems! I must see if it's available for lunch.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Slime mould and trains? Poem?

Happy new year! I hope breaking the fast was glorious.

[selidor]

Yay for further lack of headaches.
If 'Across the Taklamakan by Slime Mould' doesn't turn up within a year, someone should probably grow it.
I wonder if there's a way to get them to reproduce the Pacific trading routes. Slime moulds on little barges may not work.

I am not writing the poem where Loki reviews journal articles. "Peer review" is shaky enough as it stands...