Root-knot nematodes (RKNs) are worm-like parasites of the genus Meloidogyne that are found in many parts of the world. They attack the roots of plants, causing them to wilt and eventually die. It is ...

We are traveling in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Forest ecologist Steve Stephenson bends over a decaying stump and parts a curtain of moss so I can see a tiny stand of what looks like ...

Recent studies have increasingly challenged the traditional view that cognitive processes are exclusively the domain of organisms with nervous systems. Research into slime molds and other unicellular ...

What is slime mold and what should you do about it? originally appeared on Dengarden. If you’ve recently made the (mildly horrifying) discovery of a slimy growth in your mulch that looks like ...

The cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum is a soil microbe that produces diverse natural products with potential antibiotic activity. Previously, three chlorinated compounds had been detected ...

John Bonner, the George M. Moffett Professor of Biology, Emeritus, whose influential work with cellular slime molds shed light on the mechanisms of microbial life and illuminated the behavior of cells ...

Slime molds are yellow, oozing, amoeba-like organisms often found on decaying logs and in moist areas. They have no neurons of any kind, not to mention a brain. Each organism consists of just a single ...

From the top of the mountain a faint trail, probably a game trail maintained by deer, led down the north-facing slope to a shady, moist area. Several blackened logs, probably from an unsanctioned ...

Humans have the largest brains of any creature on the Earth, so we are always using our brains and thinking about solutions to problems. Scientists have wondered how organisms that lack a brain can ...

Once you’ve seen a slime mold—its gooey, delicately branching structure oozing in a vaguely unsettling way along a log or leaf—you’re unlikely to forget it. They’re unmistakable because there’s ...