All scientific claims published on BlobFarm are sourced from articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Here is our bibliography — the essential references on Physarum polycephalum, listed chronologically.
Our commitment
At BlobFarm, we don't just make things up. Every figure, every behavior, every comparison we cite comes from a referenced publication, verifiable with a single click. And when a popular piece of data about the blob is actually a myth, we say so rather than repeating it. If you spot an inconsistency, write to us at hello@blobfarm.com and we will correct it.
Reference publications
1822
- Schweinitz, L.D. (1822). Synopsis Fungorum Carolinae Superioris. (First scientific description of Physarum polycephalum)
1859
- De Bary, A. (1859). Die Mycetozoen. Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie, 10, 88-175. (Removed myxomycetes from fungi to group them with animals, under the name Mycetozoa. The revised monograph was published in 1864.)
1931
- Howard, F.L. (1931). The life history of Physarum polycephalum. American Journal of Botany, 18(2), 116-133. (First complete description of the life cycle)
1987 — The 720 mating types
- Kawano, S., Kuroiwa, T., Anderson, R.W. (1987). A third multiallelic mating-type locus in Physarum polycephalum. Journal of General Microbiology, 133(9), 2539-2546. (Description of the third compatibility locus. This is where the figure of 720 comes from: matA 16 alleles × matB 15 × matC 3.)
2000 — A pivotal year
- Nakagaki, T., Yamada, H., Tóth, Á. (2000). Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism. Nature, 407(6803), 470. (First demonstration: the blob solves mazes)
2007 — Optimal network
- Nakagaki, T., Iima, M., Ueda, T., Nishiura, Y., Saigusa, T., Tero, A., Kobayashi, R., Showalter, K. (2007). Minimum-risk path finding by an adaptive amoebal network. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 274(1622), 1953-1957. (The blob connects multiple food sources via a network that minimizes length and risk; reference used for the "Optimal Network" experiment of the Blob Discovery and Lab Kit.)
2008
- Saigusa, T., Tero, A., Nakagaki, T., Kuramoto, Y. (2008). Amoebae anticipate periodic events. Physical Review Letters, 100(1), 018101.
2010 — The consecration
- Tero, A., Takagi, S., Saigusa, T., … Nakagaki, T. (2010). Rules for biologically inspired adaptive network design. Science, 327(5964), 439-442. (The Tokyo experiment: in 26 hours, the blob forms a network with efficiency comparable to the railway network of the Tokyo region)
2015-2017 — Decision-making and externalized memory
- Beekman, M., Latty, T. (2015). Brainless but multi-headed: decision making by the acellular slime mould Physarum polycephalum. Journal of Molecular Biology, 427(23), 3734-3743.
- Smith-Ferguson, J., Reid, C.R., Latty, T., Beekman, M. (2017). Hansel, Gretel and the slime mould — how an external spatial memory aids navigation in complex environments. Journal of Physics D. (The blob leaves a chemical trail in its wake, which helps it avoid passing over the same place again)
2019 — Classification
- Adl, S.M. et al. (2019). Revisions to the Classification, Nomenclature, and Diversity of Eukaryotes. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 66(1), 4-119.
2021 — The blob in space
- CNES & CNRS (2021). "Elevate your blob" project — Mission Alpha. (4 sclerotia aboard the ISS, arrived via the Cygnus cargo ship on August 12 and rehydrated on September 2, 2021. Approximately 4,500 candidate establishments, ~2,000 selected. Educational project, with no peer-reviewed publication.)
Work
- Adamatzky, A. (2010). Physarum Machines: Computers from Slime Mould. World Scientific. (Computing inspired by Physarum)
Two myths we won't repeat
- "The blob is 500 million years old" — myxomycetes, lacking hard structures, almost never fossilize, and the rare traces known do not allow for the dating of the species. We can date the Amoebozoa lineage (molecular clocks, over a billion years old), not the species.
- "720 mating types, a world record" — the fungus Schizophyllum commune is said to have over 23,000. 720 remains spectacular, but it is not a record.
Taxonomic classification
Eukaryota › Amoebozoa (supergroup) › Evosea › Eumycetozoa › Myxogastria (= myxomycetes) › Physarales › Physaraceae › Physarum › P. polycephalum (Schweinitz, 1822)
Source: Adl, S.M. et al. (2019). Note: modern eukaryotic classification abandons Linnaean ranks — Amoebozoa is not a "kingdom", and the accepted name is Myxogastria, with "Myxomycetes" remaining a traditional synonym.
Strains offered at BlobFarm
- Major Tom — Physarum polycephalum (LU352), the strain sent to the International Space Station by the CNES in 2021.
- Australian Physarum polycephalum — an Australian isolate of the same species as Major Tom.
To learn more
Bibliography kept up to date by the BlobFarm team. Suggest a reference or report an error: hello@blobfarm.com
