Slime Networks Are Better Organized than Railway Systems | The Institute for Creation Research

Slime Networks Are Better Organized than Railway Systems

What do the Tokyo railway system and slime mold have in common?

Answer: They both employ optimized networks. Researchers found that slime mold growth algorithms are so well-designed that they could be copied and used to improve computer and communication networks.

When conditions are good, the huge, single-celled slime mold spreads out in search of nutrients. Then when conditions sour, it thins out in spots to form veins that connect food sources to its main body using the shortest possible routes. These veins and the slime mold are in constant motion to make the best use of the changing environment.

Researchers tested this by arranging oat flakes in the same pattern as cities around Tokyo. They watched as the slime mold “connected these oat flakes by forming an optimized network closely approaching the purposefully designed Tokyo railway system.”1

The research was summarized in the January 22, 2010, issue of Science. A report on the study stated that “ self-organization, self-optimization, and self-repair as it naturally occurs in the slime mold Physarum polycephalum are capabilities that may be required for technological systems such as mobile communication networks or networks of dynamically connected computational devices.”1 But how did an algorithm that was applied in Tokyo by the “purposeful design” of human engineers come about in slime mold “naturally”—especially since the natural version is adaptive, and the man-made version is static?

The technical report in Science stated, “Unlike anthropogenic infrastructure systems, these biological networks have been subjected to successive rounds of evolutionary selection and are likely to have reached a point at which cost, efficiency, and resilience are appropriately balanced.” In addition to balancing the needs of cost, efficiency, and breakdown-resistance better than man-made systems, slime mold networks also “develop without centralized control and may represent a readily scalable solution for growing networks in general.”2

The researchers hope that their mathematical model based on the slime’s “adaptive self-optimization” will lead to the improved engineering of man-made networks.1 Their speculative “just so” story that this superior ability came about through “successive rounds of evolutionary selection,” however, is not a scientific conclusion, because its origin was not observed and therefore must be inferred.

Nature abounds with evidence of superior engineering. Even lowly slime mold provides a great example of complicated problem-solving abilities that, although they exist in nature, had to have come from a source outside of nature—since nature by itself is universally characterized by processes that degrade abilities instead of generating them.3 The Bible provides just such an informational source: a transcendent Creator. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”4

References

  1. Marwan, W. 2010. Amoeba-Inspired Network Design. Science. 327(5964): 419-420.
  2. Tero, A. et al. 2010. Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design. Science. 327 (5964): 439-442.
  3. For example, see Wood, T. C. 2002. The Terror of Anthrax in a Degrading Creation. Acts & Facts. 31 (3).
  4. Romans 1:20.

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on January 29, 2010.

The Latest
NEWS
Marine Mammals: Designed for Deep Diving
While you’re reading this, hold your breath. What is now happening is your blood is delivering the last of oxygenated blood cells to your tissues...

CREATION PODCAST
Humanity's Demise at the Hands of Genetic Entropy | The Creation...
Welcome to the fourth episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...

NEWS
''Inside-Out'' Fossil is Amazingly Preserved
It is widely known that vast numbers of fossils—vertebrate and invertebrate—have been discovered incredibly well-preserved.1,2...

NEWS
The Resurrection and the Origin of Life
At Easter time we focus on the cardinal Christian doctrine of the Resurrection. Without the Resurrection, Christianity is a sham. The truth that Jesus...

NEWS
Is an Ancient Extinct Tree-Dweller Our Relative?
Human evolution has always been hazy with seemingly as many attempted explanations for how we evolved from animals as there are paleoanthropologists. Evolutionists...

NEWS
The Return of the Dire Wolf?
There’s been much recent excitement about the birth of three dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus) puppies by a Dallas-based biotech company: Colossal Bioscience....

CREATION PODCAST
Cracks in the Layers: Lake Suigetsu and the Old Earth Illusion...
Welcome to the third episode in a series called “The Failures of Old Earth Creationism.” Many Christians attempt to fit old earth...

NEWS
Fish Fossil Vomit
A rather unsavory news story recently appeared regarding fossilized vomit. Although it’s hardly dinner table conversation, it nonetheless supports...

NEWS
Dino Footprints Down Under
Dinosaur trackways1 are once again making the news. Australia is the setting of a remarkable series of dinosaur tracks attributed to ornithischian...

NEWS
April 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things...