Slime Molds: Protists with Brainless Intelligence by Veronica Cassone McGowan https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw What was interesting to you or surprising? What questions do you have? How does this case study challenge disciplinary definitions of intelligence? en-us 2025-08-04 06:20:17 UTC 2025-08-06 23:16:59 UTC hello@padlet.com Challenges fixed understandings https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537131064 2025-08-06 18:23:15 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537131064 I wonder how much they have evolved from their first appearance on earth? https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537133248 2025-08-06 18:28:22 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537133248 https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537133402 Slime Molds are a great example of how we know only a little bit.

]]> 2025-08-06 18:28:51 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537133402 Another example of how an organism is competent at another level than the standards we set as humans. https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537134275 "Yet slime molds do not blindly ooze from one place to another--they carefully explore their environments, seeking the most efficient routes between resources."

]]> 2025-08-06 18:30:28 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537134275 Interesting https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537134477 capable of solving more complex spatial problems

]]> 2025-08-06 18:30:55 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537134477 Question: https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537135731 "[...] choose the healthiest food from a diverse menu [...]" How did this study go? Was their a theory as to why it chose the healthiest? What were the other options?

]]> 2025-08-06 18:33:17 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537135731 Hmm... https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537136443 We, as humans, have an idea of how to judge and categorize others (whether correct or not), but do other organisms (like slime molds) have opinions on humans in their own way?

]]> 2025-08-06 18:34:55 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537136443 Looking for food https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537136679 Understanding that some food is better than others to reach the nutritional values that it needs

]]> 2025-08-06 18:35:36 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537136679 Surprising https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537137669 Yet slime molds do not blindly ooze from one place to another—they carefully explore their environments, seeking the most efficient routes between resources. They do not accept whatever circumstances they find themselves in, but rather choose conditions most amenable to their survival.

Hmmm...similar to Humans

]]> 2025-08-06 18:38:07 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537137669 More experimentation? How? https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537137880 The article says, "They remember, anticipate and decide. By doing so much with so little, slime molds represent a successful and admirable alternative to convoluted brain-based intelligence." More experimentation seems to be needed but how can species-centric experimentation take place?

]]> 2025-08-06 18:38:33 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537137880 Haiku - Outside https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537152252 I see children walk—
past blooms and still stone stories,
bee lies in silence

]]> 2025-08-06 19:06:37 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537152252 https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537152273 Grapes split - water

hint of grapes and earth

vines curling, reaching

like the traffic on Thornhill

]]> 2025-08-06 19:06:42 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537152273 Ethnographic poem https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537152715 I only hear wheels

Ignore my sense of smell

Trees waving in the breeze

]]> 2025-08-06 19:07:26 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537152715 Pollinators https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537153902 No touching, smell the grass.

Flowers abound, wilted, blooming.

Bees know where to go.

]]> 2025-08-06 19:09:54 UTC https://padlet.com/vmcgowan1/qjy6kei158xswhnw/wish/3537153902