Physarum polycephalum is a single-celled organism — no brain, no nervous system —
that finds near-optimal paths between food sources. This simulation uses an agent model
(Jones 2010): particles follow chemical trails they deposit, trails diffuse and decay,
and the resulting network self-organizes toward efficient connection.
Click the canvas to place food sources.
preset:
initializing…
The organism has no centralized decision-making. Each particle responds only to local
chemical gradients. Path efficiency emerges from reinforcement: high-traffic routes
accumulate trail faster than it decays, attracting more traffic. Low-traffic branches
fade. In 2010, Toshiyuki Nakagaki's lab showed that Physarum reconstructed
the Tokyo rail network — connecting 36 population centers — with comparable efficiency
and fault-tolerance to the actual system. The slime mold had never seen a map.