1. So, it's a new pathogenicity slime mold.

2. The slime mold abandoned its tendrils near the salt and then grew a new highway pattern that efficiently rerouted food across Canada.

3. The slime mold grew a network of tentacles that was nearly identical to the actual highway system on the Iberian Peninsula.

4. In this video[], the simulated slime mold starts spread evenly throughout the land and then adapts its shape to the food sources.

5. By analyzing the DNA of different slime mold species, researchers are reconstructing their evolutionary history, which turns out to reach back about a billion years.

6. After four hours, the slime mold was feasting on both blocks of food.

7. In the first trial, the scientists offered the slime mold food chunks that contained 3 percent oat flakes in the dark, and 5 percent oat flakes in bright light.

8. Because slime mold finds the paths that are most resilient to faults or damage, it could be used to make mobile-communication and transportation networks hardier.

9. In 2003, Dr. Stephenson and other slime mold experts embarked on a worldwide expedition to get a better understanding of the global diversity of these creatures.

10. Physarum polycephalum, a type of slime mold, grows tendrils in search of food and withdraws extraneous arms to focus on the most efficient paths between sources.

11. In one, middle school students use a mouse to add "slime mold" to a slide and watch as it spreads faster the more they add.

12. In 2010 he and his colleagues placed a slime mold in the middle of a map of Spain and Portugal, with pieces of food on the largest cities.

13. You see one on a log, and then you come back a few hours later and it's gone, " said Steven L. Stephenson, a slime mold expert at the University of Arkansas.

14. In 2000, Japanese researchers placed Physarum polycephalum — the name means "many-headed slime mold" — in a maze, along with two blocks of food.

15. Dr. Bonner learned of a North American species of slug-forming slime mold called Dictyostelium discoides and began to raise them in his lab, studying them as a simple analog of animal embryos.

16. David Queller and Joan Strassmann, a husband-and-wife team of Dictyostelium experts at Washington University in St. Louis, have found that some strains of the slime mold are natural-born cheats.

17. If some countries started to build highways from scratch, I would recommend to them to follow the slime mold routes," Dr. Adamatzky said.