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I spent a year of college teaching rats to find their way through a maze, and now I find that slime molds, which don’t even have brains, can do the same thing! Professor Toshiyuki Nakagaki of Japan’s Future University Hakodate studies slime molds, which organize their colonies of cells to move toward a food source, using the most direct route.
“Humans are not the only living things with information-processing abilities,” he said. “Simple creatures can solve certain kinds of difficult puzzles. If you want to spotlight the essence of life or intelligence, it’s easier to use these simple creatures.”
The research in slime mold organization may lead to information-processing breakthroughs, including the possibility of biocomputers. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Flickr user Sentrawoods)
Hey, wherever you pick up lifesaving information is OK with me! Would you believe a woman’s life was saved by her poor performance on the British talent show The X Factor?
In 2007, 46-year-old Jacqui Gray was one of many contestants in the fourth season of The X Factor. Like most talent show contestants, she had little in the way of actual talent. After smirking throughout her entire performance, Cowell asked Gray the patronizing question, “You have a very weird sounding voice, are you aware of that?” Both he and fellow judge Sharon Osborne suggested that she see a throat specialist, saying that it sounded like “somebody else is in there”.
Displaying what has to be the world’s least attuned sarcasm detector, Gray decided to take the advice of the judges and see a throat specialist.
What the doctor found was quite surprising. As are the other stories in this list at Cracked. Link
Here is a site you should bookmark, because you never know when you’ll need information on some household product. What kind of information? I click through to a particular hair care product and found the company’s phone number and a toll-free alternative, the ingredients with links to more about each, emergency care instructions, ratings by independent councils, and a lot more. The database has information on recalls, warnings, and more resources as well. Link -via Interesting Pile
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From the Upcoming 
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