Slime Mold Maps Roman Roads

Okay. I have officially heard it all. Microbiology and archaeology combine to retrace lost Roman roads. 

What?! 

I know. I was skeptical too. Well, here's basically how it works/tracks back to Roman times. Molds want to find food via the shortest path between points A and B. So, they meander (slime along) until they get to the food (a flake of oatmeal). The odd thing is that when food was placed in roughly the places (on agar in a petri dish) as 17 towns and major cities of the ancient Roman empire, the slime mold traveled the same route as the Roman roads. Researchers found this to be true of known (and still used) roads as well as military roads only described in ancient travel texts. Interesting! So next time I need directions, I might try a trusty slime mold. It would take days, but all for the advancement of science, I say! 

Pinterest - more ways to share science

It seems like every time you turn around there are new online media sites popping up. When my daughter told me about Pinterest, I was less than enthusiastic. However, I've changed my tune. Pinterest is an easy place to save cool images and links that you run across while looking for something else. So, I created boards to save everything from Science & Nature to Robots to Steampunk to Architecture and more. For someone who is pretty visual, it works a lot better than a ton of computer bookmarks. Check it out! http://pinterest.com/sciwhisperer/