A zoo in Paris recently displayed a mysterious organism known as the Physarum polycephalum or the 'blob'. Though the living organism appears to be like a slimy mold experts say that the organism acts like an animal. It has no mouth, stomach or even eyes but it can apparently digest food.
It also moves despite having no arms or legs and if it gets cut in half it can heal itself in less than two minutes. The blob also apparently has 720 sexes. According to Tanya Latty, a researcher at the University of Sydney confirmed that the blob has 720 known mating types. "Whether or not a slime mold can mate with another slime mold depends on its mating type which is determined by particular genes," Letty told Cnet.
The director of the Paris Museum of Natural History, Bruno David, confirmed that scientists are baffled by the origins and structure of the blob. "The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature's mysteries,"' David said, "It surprises us because it has no brain but is able to learn, and if you merge two blobs, the one that has learned will transmit its knowledge to the other."
The unicellular organism is believed to be around a billion years old. The name blob was named after 1958 science-fiction movie in which an alien life form, The Blob, consumes everything that's in its path in a small Pennsylvania town.
"We know for sure it is not a plant but we don't really if it's an animal or a fungus," explained David. "It behaves very surprisingly for something that looks like a mushroom... it has the behavior of an animal, it is able to learn."
Scientists have also carried out a number of tests to measure its intelligence. "If we put it in a maze, it will learn and take the best route out of the maze to find its food," Bruno said, "If we put an obstacle in front of it - the blob hates salt, for example - it won't get past it right away, even if there is food behind it."
