One-celled “Slime” Organism which build networks as efficient as ones built by best human engineers!

We think we are the greatest thing on this planet.  Which translates into most intelligent and most able.  Actually, we humans may be the most aggressive and our intelligence for most part have been used for survival purposes.. even today!  Here is a story of a ONE-CELLED organism, that is called “Slime”, which builds networks that are comparable to the most complex ones built by the best of human engineers!

Image: Physarum polycephalum, slime mold, makes map of U.S.

Here this article explains how this mold was used to mimic the road networks in some countries, and what they came up with was startling!!

Physarum polycephalum, a type of slime mold, scouts for food sources by growing tendrils. Once it’s created a spider web-like network of tendrils, the mold maintains and strengthens whichever tendrils take the most direct or efficient paths to the food and withdraws the rest. So, how does this relate to the greening of America’s transportation? Well, researchers in the UK have already used the slime mold to create living maps of local roads and railways. What they found is that, without help from the researchers, the slime molds mimicked a good part of the actual road systems in the country.

Read Quote of Harish Aditham’s answer to Animals: What are some of the amazing things made by animals other than humans? on Quora