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Thread: Evaluation of Roman road networks with slime mould

  1. #1
    Stegodon kk fusion's avatar
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    Default Evaluation of Roman road networks with slime mould

    Candidate for the research project of the year!

    Roman Empire is renowned for sharp logical design and outstanding building quality of its road system. Many roads built by Romans are still use in continental Europe and UK. The Roman roads were built for military transportations with efficiency in mind, as straight as possible. Thus the roads make an ideal test-bed for developing experimental laboratory techniques for evaluating man-made transport systems using living creatures. We imitate development of road networks in Iron Age Italy using slime mould Physarum polycephalum. We represent ten Roman cities with oat flakes, inoculate the slime mould in Roma, wait till slime mould spans all flakes-cities with its network of protoplasmic tubes, and analyse structures of the protoplasmic networks. We found that most Roman roads, apart of those linking Placentia to Bononia and Genua to Florenzia are represented in development of Physarum polycephalum. Transport networks developed by Romans and by slime mould show strong affinity of planar proximity graphs, and particular minimum spanning tree. Based on laboratory experiments we reconstructed a speculative sequence of road development in Iron Age Italy.
    Full paper here.

  2. #2
    Member Elendil's Heir's avatar
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    What have the slime moulds ever done for us?

  3. #3
    Elephant Tuckerfan's avatar
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    I predict an IgNobel Prize in someone's future!
    Proud member of the '09 Phanters! K.I.L.L. S.M.U.R.F.S.
    Have you ever wondered if your mom kissed you goodnight after giving your dad a blowjob? You are now. "To be second in space is to be second in everything," LBJ

  4. #4
    The Queen Zuul's avatar
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    Excellent. I want to know what other aspects of urban planning slime molds can handle.
    So now they are just dirt-covered English people in fur pelts with credit cards.

  5. #5
    Elen síla lumenn' omentielvo What Exit?'s avatar
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    "Slime Molds to head planning board of local city, details at 11:00"

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