"This organism has no brain, but nearly 720 genders," headlines the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung".
"The 'blob': zoo showcases slime mold with 720 sexes that can heal itself in minutes," writes the Guardian.
ZOO w Paryu zaprezentuje tajemniczy organizm ", reports the Polish" Gazeta ". Translated: "The blob has no brain, but 720 sexes. The Paris Zoo presents a mysterious organism."
"The 'blob': Paris zoo unveils unusual organism which can heal itself and has 720 sexes", writes "CNN".
The media around the world are currently reporting a strange organism that will be on display at the Paris Zoo on Saturday. The facility presented the mysterious creature, Blob, to journalists for the first time on Wednesday. The news agency Reuters took up the topic and provided the template for the many articles.
It can be said that the zoo has managed a PR coup. Because the Blob is anything but a sensation. The organisms have been known for many years and quite common. And yet the Spiegel also reports now. The reason: the creatures have fascinating properties.
Physarum polycephalum, également connu sous le nom de #blob, est un être unicellulaire absolument fascinant! Découvrez-le dans Une heure en France sur @francebleu et dès le 19 octobre au @ zoodeparis.https: //t.co/QrKluT7fFJ
- Zoo de Paris (@zoodeparis) October 15, 2019The blob is actually called Physarum polycephalum. It is a slime mold that forms wide networks of yellowish to brown threads and fruiting bodies. However, in some respects the unicellular organisms behave like animals and are therefore also a popular research object.
The organisms have neither eyes nor a brain, yet they can recognize food and orient themselves in a maze. How they do it exactly, researchers can not explain so far. Once the animals have located the food, they digest it with the aid of an enzyme that they excrete. Mouth and stomach are missing.
The organisms owe their name to the science fiction horror movie "B-Movie" from the year 1958. In it, an alien creature devours everything that gets in its way.
The blob can learn things and pass on the knowledge to conspecifics
In particular, the unicellulars also makes that they have 720 sexes. However, reproduction is not comparable to that of animals.
The blob multiplies via so-called conjugation. Genes are transferred directly from a donor to a recipient cell. The organisms have developed 720 different variants. This allows them to reproduce themselves with a very large number of different conspecifics. The fusion of the cells, as in mammals, does not happen.
STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP
"The blob is one of the great mysteries of nature," says Bruno David, director of the Paris Natural History Museum. The researchers are most fascinated by the fact that the unicellular organisms can learn things and pass them on to their own species. "When you bring together two blobs, one person will pass on his knowledge to the other," explains David.
Scientists also use the Yellow Glibber to explore how cells change shape and move from place to place. Because the blob has, as usual for unicellulars, no legs. Nevertheless, he can move. He succeeds by rhythmically moving the plasma back and forth in his cell. The details of the mechanism are still researching researchers.
When you split a blob cell, it survives and becomes fully functional after two minutes. For unicellulars, this type of regeneration is not uncommon. Nevertheless, researchers from the Blob hope for new insights into cell growth.