The way fungus like slime moulds grow, could inspire design of wireless, transport and communication network engineering!

Scientists drew this conclusion after observing a slime mould as it grew into a network that was almost identical to the Tokyo rail system.


The scientists describe their ideas for "biologically inspired networks" in a science journal, as quoted by BBC. They have incorporated the slime mould's efficient strategy into a mathematical formula. This "slime formula" could help engineers develop better, more efficient designs.

Read more and see the video on biologically inspired mathematical models can lead to completely new, highly efficient algorithms 

Mould solves maze One of the researchers, Dr Mark Fricker from Oxford University, UK, attributed the whole idea of using slime moulds in this way, to Toshiyuki Nakagaki, a scientist also based at Hokkaido University. A decade ago, Dr Nakagaki showed that the slime could find the most efficient way through a maze, writes BBC.

The work provides a fascinating and convincing example that biologically inspired mathematical models can lead to completely new, highly efficient algorithms.The way fungus like slime moulds grow, could inspire design of wireless, transport and communication network engineering!