In slime molds, evolution selects 'loners' who refrain from collective behavior

Re:In slime molds, evolution selects 'loners' who refrain fr... by koeng on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @02:38AM (#22735383)

This activity can sometimes be annoying in biology experiments, especially when you get down to the bacterial size and do measurements on the population.

Think the average expression of gene X is 100? Well, it is, with 90% of the population expressing the gene at 111 and 10% not expressing it at all.

Unlike computers, cells like to do their own thing :(

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Re:In slime molds, evolution selects 'loners' who refrain fr... by 0134340 on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @05:47AM (#22736139)

>Unlike computers, cells like to do their own thing

As an ex-repair tech, I can't applaud this comment.

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Re:In slime molds, evolution selects 'loners' who refrain fr... by sysbin on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @02:46AM (#22735414)

> Unlike computers, cells like to do their own thing :(

Fairly the same, if everything at the lowest level is just programmed to do what occurs.

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Re:In slime molds, evolution selects 'loners' who refrain fr... by koeng on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @02:52AM (#22735434)

technically true, the best kind of true

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Re:In slime molds, evolution selects 'loners' who refrain fr... by baq on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @10:15AM (#22737704)

i can assure you that if you counted the amount of processors or perhaps independent computers in what's commonly referred to as a 'computer' you'd be surprised the thing actually responds to input in a somewhat predictable way.

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