[Tyler]

Amoebae Exhibit Brainless Intelligence
     

How often have you wonder if it was possible to make a robot that could
match the intelligence of an insect or even an amoeba? This is a tall
order for even the most advanced robots in the world today and new
research by
 Atsushi
Tero and Toshiyuki Nakagaki of the Hokkaido University Lab for
Cellular Informatics reminds us just how smart even a brainless single
celled animal can be. There latest research
shows that amoebae can be trained to anticipate environmental changes,
exhibiting a Pavlovian-like responses even though they have no brain or
nervous system.
Unfortunately, their paper appeared in a closed journal that restricts
viewing and distribution, so you'll have to be content
viewing the abstract
for now (unless you want to part with $25). The same research group has
been studying other intelligent, autonomous behaviors that emerge
through self-organization in single celled animals; for example their paper
(PDF format) showing that slime mold cells use an algorithm for
navigation of mazes that beats Dijkstra's
algorithm.

   

http://robots.net/article/2440.html