The creepy species of space science fact and fiction
- 20th Oct 2023
- Author: Scarlett Li-Williams
With the spooky season upon us, have you ever wondered if your favourite scary sci-fi movies could have some truth to them? You might find it surprising that many of your favourite sci-fi thriller/horror movies, such as the 1950s classic 'The Blob' (and its 1980s remake), the 2017 outer space horror 'Life,' and the post-apocalyptic drama 'The Last of Us,' may have drawn inspiration from, or exhibit a striking resemblance to, something found right here on Earth. Coincidently, this same group of organisms are also used to help us understand our universe and has even been sent to space!
The Slimy Truth
Slime moulds are not just one type of organism, there are actually many different types of organisms that can be categorised as a slime mould. Each type has their own unique appearance, behaviour, strengths and weaknesses. Despite being called moulds, they are not related to moulds you may have seen before like on old bread or in the corners of your bathroom walls (these are types of fungi that are bad for you!). Slimes moulds are not a type of fungi, and they are not a type of animal or plant either. They belong to a group of organisms called protists, a kingdom of organisms scientists find complicated and hard to define.
One type of slime mould, called Physarum polycephalum (P. polycephalum), has been discovered to have intelligence, and can not only problem solve but also retain memory despite having no brain-like structure or even brain cell features! However, these yellowey, yolk-like ‘blobs’, that can be found naturally in the dark and moist depths of woodlands, are able to extend pulsing vein-like tubes. They create a network that is able to navigate around chemicals, through mazes and across distances up to a metre long. Amazingly, they're able pick the most nutritious food when offered a variety of options, absorbing the food into itself once finding the best food source, and scientists currently do not fully understand how they are able to make decisions. Not only is it making scientists rethink how we understand intelligence and cognition, but they are inspiring artists, engineers, and architects in the development of computer devices, train networks, and urban planning.
Another slime mould called Dictyostelium discoideum (D. discoideum), which usually live as an individual single cell in soil, has been found to be able to morph with other individual cells when food resources are low, and can form into a mound or slug-shape slimy creature. This big blob of individuals is then able to collectively work together and behave as one being, with each cell having their own role in this new creature.
Slime moulds debut in scary movies
It is unsurprising these mysterious, darkness-dwelling, and intelligent beings have become an inspiration for many sci-fi horror movies. The Blob (although outdated in many ways), is a sci-fi classic movie centred around an outer space slimy creature that comes to earth and causes chaos. Despite conflicting rumours of what was the inspiration of the blob, whether it was the star jelly or slime moulds, they share many similarities to the behaviour of P. polycephalum, a slime mould.
The more recent Sci-Fi horror success ‘Life’ featuring Ryan Reynolds, Jake Gyllenhaal and Rebecca Ferguson, features a carbon-based alien creature based on the slime mould D. discoideum. Without revealing any spoilers, this creature shared some similar physical features described above, giving the creature both an awe-inspiring and a terrifying quality.
It does not stop there, there is an entire movie dedicated to slime moulds called ‘The creeping garden’ where you can learn all about what these creatures can do, perfect for the Halloween season.
Slime & Space Science
It is not just creepy creatures that slime moulds can inspire us to create, but also ways to understand the universe. There is a striking similarity between the tube-like network that P. polycephalum uses to find food and the threadlike, large-scale structures found in the universe. In 2020, researchers collaborated on a project led by Joseph Burchett at University of California (UC), Santa Cruz, that may have found a way to use slime moulds to solidify our understanding of how our universe is structured. So how does that work?
In the universe as we understand it, gravity has built a web structure called the cosmic web (made up of galaxies, dark matter, gases and more), and it has long thread-like structures called filaments. It is on these filaments that galaxies are built and found upon. However, because the filaments are hard to detect, it is challenging for scientists to map them.
To be able to visualise this cosmic web structure, the gases and galaxy positions in them, the team of researchers designed a computer algorithm and a 3D model inspired by a slime mould to estimate where the cosmic web filaments are and how they are structured. Not only does this slime mould inspired method make this map with close accuracy, but it does it very quickly.
Whilst these slimy, strange creatures are an inspiration for villains in science fiction, slime moulds are heroes in actual science and our society. They have helped us build efficient transport systems, create evacuation routes and even facilitate our understanding of the universe. They prove that not all things might be as creepy and scary as they first seem!
Full references / credits:
(Banner image) Illustration of Dictyostelium discoideum (D. discoideum). Credit: © Scarlett Li-Williams (Sky Plum Studios)
(1) Illustrations of Physarum polycephalum (P. polycephalum)(left) and Dictyostelium discoideum (D. discoideum) (right). Credit: © Scarlett Li-Williams (Sky Plum Studios)
(2) Illustration of a cinema screening with space movie. Credit: © Scarlett Li-Williams
(3) A section of a computer model that shows how light may spread through the early universe on vast scales, showing the galaxy filaments and web-like structures (Left). Illustrations of Physarum polycephalum (P. polycephalum), including the tube-like network made to source food (Right). Credit: Andrew Pontzen/Fabio Governato CC BY 2.0 (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Large-scale_structure_of_light_distribution_in_the_universe.jpg)
