Last night I did not sleep well. Today I have been a little on edge. You see, last night before going to bed I read about a study that has me terrified.
Carol Yoon of the New York Times reports on a study completed by Owen Gilbert of Rice University and published in March's Molecular Ecology. Gilbert and colleagues have identified a patch of slime 40 feet across outside of Houston composed of billions of single-celled amoebas with a single genetic composition. The amoebas arise from a single parent, behave cooperatively, commit suicide to benefit the reproductive fitness of the group, and they're moving.
Yoon casually makes reference to "The Blob," but Kevin Foster of Stanford University is quoted in the article as saying that this "raises the possibility that cells might evolve to organize on much larger spatial scales." That's when I looked closely at the accompanying graphic:
Figure 1: Owen Gilbert's image of the creeping amoeba slime
I got a little suspicious of some of the blurry areas in the picture. I took the image to the computer in our lab and this is what I found:
Figure 2: Isis's 10x magnification and refocusing of the bottom left corner.
I think this may be much, much bigger than simply being "the first [study] to clearly demonstrate "the extreme of relatedness" in social microbes, a population of genetically identical individuals."
Figure 3: I mean, don't you people remember what happened last time a large bunch of genetically identical individuals got together?
Life Science
Environment
Comments
If I had know that the little buggers had machine guns I would have been more careful!!
Posted by: Owen Gilbert | March 25, 2009 6:17 PM
...
Isis . . . . . .you are totally out of control now.
Please ... get some help. Soon. Now.
...tom...
.
Posted by: ...tom... | March 25, 2009 6:17 PM
It's okay. They have a predator.
Posted by: Ed Yong | March 25, 2009 6:22 PM
Owen Gilbert, you are one super cool dude!
As I look back on my hilarious Photoshopping of Mr. Gilbert's excellent work, I wonder why I chose to give the ammo to the dudes with the knives. Perhaps Toaster Sunshine would call this a "fail?"
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | March 25, 2009 6:43 PM
Thanks for this post- I've had a category 10 bad day and the photoshopped slime made my day a little better.
Posted by: Eugenie | March 25, 2009 6:43 PM
Interesting stuff.
David Sloan Wilson has argued that Dicty is evidence of group selection. I'm not 100% convinced, but I do have to admit they're capable of some pretty incredible stuff, and the "apoptosis" of individual amoeba's for the "good" of the group does require a bit of acrobatics to explain away in terms of individual selection.
Posted by: Wes | March 25, 2009 7:31 PM
I had a good day and this still improved it!
Posted by: Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D. | March 25, 2009 8:56 PM
I think I need to look into some Photoshop addiction support groups and send some links your way ;)
The slime's pretty cool.
Posted by: Academic | March 25, 2009 9:03 PM
No, it's not ok! Slime molds can solve mazes!!!
Posted by: Miriam | March 25, 2009 9:22 PM
Perhaps Toaster Sunshine would call this a "fail?"
Huh?
Although I am honored to have entered The Goddess' lexicon, I am confused. Has my youthful nerd diction truly captured your ears or are you just le tired?
And it's not a fail. It'd be a fail if they had shotgun shells or something like that, but those are rather pointy shells which, albeit impractically, could be used to bruise their opponents' ankles right nice. Maybe if they could swing that high and get enough velocity they could even stab their foes in their necks with them, you know, if their knives were stuck in something or stuff...
I don't generally flaunt being a Mad Scientist Zombie Survivalist, but reading what I just wrote I see that it is unfortunately apparent.
P.S. - I've made it a point to come here a few times a day to your blog and click around randomly, and renew the page several times, to drive up your pageviews.
Posted by: Toaster | March 25, 2009 10:22 PM
ALSO!
In case you were not terrified enough, here is a reference that discusses mathematical models of how Dictyostellium moves. I done blogged about it here.
Apparently it more or less creates its own pressure waves and rides it around. Basically, imagine your slime mold army rolling down a Jello wave continuously and that appears to be how it works. Sweet, huh?
Posted by: Toaster | March 25, 2009 10:27 PM
Best. Photoshop. Ever.
Posted by: ScienceMama | March 26, 2009 12:05 AM
Man, someone needs to drive a truck full of Liquid Nitrogen to Houston RIGHT NOW!
Posted by: CG | March 26, 2009 12:07 AM
Slime molds are among the coolest living things EVAH.
And of course the dudes with knives carry ammo. The dudes with guns can only carry so much ammo for themselves.
Posted by: Harold | March 26, 2009 7:26 AM
I think the decision of giving the knife wielding fiends the ammo was brilliant. It reiterates the relationship these amoebas share. They've distributed the weight among the group, armed everyone, but still suggested a group mentality by allowing the individuals to aid one another. Dr. Isis, I salute you. :)
Posted by: Katie 2.0 | March 26, 2009 11:39 AM
The NSA allegedly have compelling evidence that Naegleria fowleri has been acting as a militant proxy group of the amoeba discussed in the article linked to above. N. fowleri being the little bugger(s?) that sneak into the nasal orifices of unwitting children, shimmy along the optic nerve and subsequently feast on the youthful brain tissue with savage and ecstatic abandon.
Posted by: DSKS | March 26, 2009 12:47 PM
Eh, no need to be nervous.
After all, you know what they say...
Everything's bigger in Texas.
(Let's just hope it stays there.) ;)
Posted by: JLK | March 26, 2009 1:11 PM
JLK, didn't you see that it is moving?????
And DSKS, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | March 26, 2009 1:13 PM
The NRA believes all slime molds have the right to guns and ammo.
Posted by: Pascale | March 27, 2009 12:39 PM