Slime molds - with Kyle David

What do some amoebozoans and the urban planners of Tokyo have in common? And who is smarter? What even is intelligence? Find out by learning about Physarum polycephalum, a slime mold (aka "slimy guy") you could find on a walk in the woods. Scientist Kyle David talks about the lifestyle and weird features of P. polycephalum and how, even when it's meters long and wrapping itself around trees, it's really still only one single cell. We also talk about human vs. non-human intelligence, how this amoeba defies the human-created and often nebulous paradigms of "biological sex", and what we can learn from the formidable microbes around us.

Dr. Kyle T. David, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow in the Rokas Lab at Vanderbilt University, who has studied the evolution ...