Can slime molds get stoned?

Scientific concepts, discoveries, and nature phenomena

Slime molds as single-celled organisms

• The featured organism (“Jerry,” Fiserum polyphylum) is described as one giant cell rather than a multicellular organism.
• It still requires many nuclei to store DNA and produce proteins.

Behavior without neurons (“decision-making” via chemistry and physics)

• Despite lacking neurons, the organism performs environment exploration and food-seeking.
• Its intelligence is demonstrated via maze-solving behavior in lab setups.

Requirements for slime mold growth

• Slime molds require a damp environment to avoid drying out.
• They are sensitive to light:
  • In full light they do not grow.
  • They are typically found in dark, sheltered places (e.g., under logs or mulch).

“Maze experiment” methodology

Setup

• Sterile petri dish with an agar gel surface.
• Oats placed at the start and end (and later multiple piles).
• Work under controlled light/dark conditions.

Observation

• Multiple repeated runs show non-deterministic outcomes:
  • sometimes successful,
  • sometimes failing,
  • sometimes stopping near the goal.

Control vs alternative explanation

• The description addresses the claim that the slime mold “fills space like water” by emphasizing it crawls/explores using its biomass, rather than merely spreading passively.

Chemotaxis / food preferences (receptors and chemical sensing)

• The slime mold appears to prefer certain foods due to chemical signals.

• Example comparisons described:

  • Carrot vs mushrooms vs meat vs fruit/vegetables
    • It rapidly finds carrot and mushrooms, with stronger attraction to mushrooms.
  • Fruit/acid avoidance
    • Apple was disliked.
    • Prior results mentioned avoidance of salty and sour.

• It is suggested the organism has receptors/ion channels for specific chemical cues.

Network formation for nutrient transport

• Feeding produces an interconnected tubular “goo network” that functions like an efficient highway for nutrient distribution.
• Fluorescent dye is used to visualize nutrient movement through the body, described as rapid “lightning” pumping once connections form.

Biological computation / graph-like optimization

• Inspired by earlier comparisons to human city/subway optimization:
  • Japan: researchers simulated a subway map (Tokyo) by placing food sources at station locations, then observing whether slime mold connected them.
• This video’s experiment scales up the same idea using Montreal:
  • Land is made opaque/black and water made light-transmitting via a special map on a light panel.
  • The slime mold avoids bright water regions and connects oat “stations” in a pattern “pretty similar” to the human network.

Electrical activity and action-potential-like signals

• Prior work (in the video context) used an electrophysiology machine recording from human/rat neurons.
• The slime mold produced big voltage spikes described as action potential–like signals.
• When gently stimulated (“zap”), it responded with pulses and counter-pulses, with effects depending on distance from the stimulus.

Ancient molecular toolkit and drug responsiveness

• The argument: many receptor systems are evolutionarily ancient (example: calcium ion channels).
• Therefore, human medications might affect slime molds.

Drug/chemical challenge experiments (“Can slime molds get high?”)

Study design

• Repeated trials with controlled dosing:
  • Three oat piles on each plate (left/right/middle).
  • The middle pile is dosed with the test substance.
• Many tests are performed:
  • most are “pilot” runs (often single runs),
  • highlights are shown.

Observed effects by substance class (key outcomes)

• Anti-inflammatories (non-steroidal and steroidal)

  • Tested:
    • ibuprofen
    • naproxen (“neproxin”)
    • Robax (ibuprofen + muscle relaxer)
    • Nasonex (steroid anti-inflammatory)
  • Observations:
    • Slime mold “veins” become extra squiggly
    • Sometimes holes appear in the goo network

• Antihistamine

  • Tested: liquid Claritin and multiple antihistamines
  • Liquid Claritin:
    • strong aversion
    • upon contact with dosed oats, the slime mold recoiled repeatedly

• Heavy-metal medicine

  • Tested: Pepto-Bismol
  • Observations:
    • Tubes become thick and defined
    • Reduced and slowed spreading (described as “constipated”)

• Caffeine (subtle effects)

  • After full growth:
    • capillaries appear puffy and poorly organized

• ADHD medication (stimulant; metabolizes to amphetamine)

  • Tested: “fians” (amphetamines implied)
  • Observations:
    • Slime becomes more stringy/lightning-like
    • Pulse frequency changes mentioned
    • With dye, slime “lined/belined” toward the dosed oats
  • Follow-up using powder from a pill:
    • slime consumes non-dosed piles first
    • then preferentially attacks the meth-dosed pile and processes it to completion (“volcano of Jerry goo”)

• Nicotine / tobacco

  • Tobacco extract:
    • slime ignored it and grew normally
  • Actual tobacco leaves:
    • slime refused to eat or even touch the tobacco
  • Suggestion:
    • nicotine is a plant defense against pests, and slime seems strongly averse

• “Wacky tobaci” / cannabis-like effects

  • Tested:
    • a cannabis product (“Johnny Redeye” bud)
    • extracts
      • CBD: little effect
      • THCA extract: similar behavior to the whole bud
  • Observations (for bud / THC/THCA):
    • initially hesitant, then eventually devoured
    • showed bursts of activity
    • capillaries became more defined and feathery

Researchers or sources featured (named in subtitles)

• Japanese researchers (no individual names provided) — earlier work comparing slime mold network organization to human subway connectivity (Tokyo simulation).
• No other specific researcher names are provided in the subtitles.