4AoS has discussed slime mould before.
These bizarre organisms exhibit characteristics of both animals and fungi. The individual 'amoebae' live as a multicellular mass communicating by chemical signals:
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/slime.htm
And although it's just a single celled organism some boffins think it exhibits some form of primitive intelligence:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/944790.stm
David's just sent in this fascinating article on the slime mould known as Physarum polycephalum. It can negotiate the shortest way through a maze and solve complex mathematical challenges such as creating a Voronoi diagram and a Delaunay triangulation, which is pretty impressive. In truth, I can't even find the shortest way out of a maze.
Physarum polycephalum lives in
forests around the world. It feeds on various kinds of microscopic
particles. As it forages for food, protoplasmic tubes of slime
extend out and bifurcate like tree branches; whenever it happens
upon a source of nutrients, it gathers into a bloblike formation.
The whole thing--blobs connected by tubes--is a single organism,
and the network serves to transport nutrients throughout its "body."
An interesting fact about this slime mold is that it is highly
intelligent--or at least it behaves as if it is. In locating food
in its environment, it builds networks that have been shown to be
optimally efficient in transporting the nutrients over the area in
question.
Full story here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/the-wisdom-of-slime.html?_r=1
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