Current Events > Paris zoo unveils the "blob", an organism with no brain but 720 sexes

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1WV2AD
Sorry about mobile site

The ''blob'', slime mould (Physarum polycephalum), a single-celled organism forming over tree chunk, is pictured at the Paris Zoological Park during a press preview in Paris, France, October 16, 2019.

This newest exhibit of the Paris Zoological Park, which goes on display to the public on Saturday, has no mouth, no stomach, no eyes, yet it can detect food and digest it.

The blob also has almost 720 sexes, can move without legs or wings and heals itself in two minutes if cut in half.

"The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature's mysteries", said Bruno David, director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, of which the Zoological Park is part.

"It surprises us because it has no brain but is able to learn (...) and if you merge two blobs, the one that has learned will transmit its knowledge to the other," David added.

The blob was named after a 1958 science-fiction horror B-movie, starring a young Steve McQueen, in which an alien life form - The Blob - consumes everything in its path in a small Pennsylvania town.

"We know for sure it is not a plant but we don't really if it's an animal or a fungus," said David.

"It behaves very surprisingly for something that looks like a mushroom (...) it has the behavior of an animal, it is able to learn."

---

There are some very offensive jokes you can make with that >_>

---

Umm....WTF
---

So the SJWs were right after all
---

awesome999 posted...

"We know for sure it is not a plant but we don't really if it's an animal or a fungus," said David.

I mean... it's not classified as either?

---

Interesting

From the description in the OP it sounds more like an art exhibit instead of a biological one.
---

I love nature.
---

There's only 2 sexes, yes please and no thanks.
---

Slime molds are cool as fuck. They've also been studied in regards to building efficient routing systems because of the way they structure themselves to move resources around. They basically build perfect road systems out of themselves
---

Inb4 Araki makes this a stand in Part 9 of JoJo
---

I...

Huh?
---

It's the symbiote
---

CableZL posted...

It's the symbiote

Dassit!
---

gunplagirl posted...

There's only 2 sexes, yes please and no thanks.

Those are the same thing
---

Still more useful to society than Trump supporters
---

What if you touched it, would it merge with you and learn everything you know?

Hmm..

It's like your average social justice advocate

---

The blob also has almost 720 sexes, can move without legs or wings and heals itself in two minutes if cut in half.

the superhero we deserve
---

It's going to kill us all

---

It has no brain but it has the ability to learn? Shouldn't this things mere existence be a bigger deal?
---

In America we just call them SJW's
---

It was discovered in 2009.
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Bright-Green/2009/0717/giant-mysterious-blob-found-floating-off-alaska-coast
---

That blob is now Tumblr's mascot

---

my first thought is wondering whether it's ecologically invasive

Goats posted...

rent free
---

Ving_Rhames posted...

It has no brain but it has the ability to learn? Shouldn't this things mere existence be a bigger deal?

---

Who counted all 720? And what does that even mean?
---

don't question the wokebeast
---

Hmm
---

AlisLandale posted...

Inb4 Araki makes this a stand in Part 9 of JoJo

Yellow Temperance: "Am I a joke to you?"

---

There's an excellent documentary film about this creature called The Creeping Garden, which I would recommend without much hesitation.
---

FF_Redux posted...

There are some very offensive jokes you can make with that >_>

lol
---

Sariana21 posted...

Who counted all 720? And what does that even mean?

Everything we dreamed and hoped for is lost. A blob has 720 sexes, illuminati confirmed.

---

Ving_Rhames posted...

It has no brain but it has the ability to learn? Shouldn't this things mere existence be a bigger deal?

I mean.... "Learn" in this case isn't particularly robust. If it forms a structure and finds food, it will reform that same structure again if reverted to its orginal state. It will also refine the structure to improve efficiency, which means contracting non-food bearing pathways back to the main "body".

It's a bit of a one-trick pony, but its behavior is still very interesting.

---

How does a single cell organism have sexes at all?

And how can they tell it learns?
---

sounds like a liberal
---

720 more sexes than any ceman has ever had
---

ALIEN_WORK2HOP posted...

720 more sexes than any ceman has ever had

---

Once you see it you'll turn 720 degrees and walk away

---

So the Paris zoo unveiled a Social Justice Warrior?

---

What counts as a sex for the blob?
---

So it can mate with men, women, neither, both uhhh

Wtf 720?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2019/10/17/meet-the-blob-a-creature-that-has-almost-720-sexes--but-no-brain/

But back to the almost 720 sexes that these beasties have. You are, no doubt, having trouble wrapping your head around that, and you may be wondering about the dating possibilities that exist for these wee beasties. Basically, slime molds can only mix their genetic material when they possess a compatible set of mitochondrial genes known as matA, matB, and matC, each of which has as many as 16 variations (ref). So it would appear that slime molds lead very complicated social lives.

How hard did it cry when Trump won

---

looks no different from mold, which is just a collection of single-cellular organisms, tbh

Sariana21 posted...

Who counted all 720? And what does that even mean?

Some people will want 720 different bathrooms.
---

fohstick posted...

looks no different from mold, which is just a collection of single-cellular organisms, tbh

It can move and even solve mazes.