a naked mass of protoplasm having characteristics of both plants and animals; sometimes classified as protoctists

after four hours, the slime mold was feasting on both blocks of food.

四小时后，黏菌已经在尽情享用食物了。

because slime mold finds the paths that are most resilient to faults or damage, it could be used to make mobile-communication and transportation networks hardier.

由于发现粘菌的路径，是最能适应各种恶劣的环境，它可能被用来制造移动通讯和强化运输网络。

you see one on a log, and then you come back a few hours later and it’s gone, ” said steven l. stephenson, a slime mold expert at the university of arkansas.

「你在圆木上见到一个非细胞黏菌，等几个小时后再回来，它就不见了，」阿肯色大学的黏菌专家史蒂芬l.斯蒂芬森（stevenl.stephenson）说。

in this video, the simulated slime mold starts spread evenly throughout the land and then adapts its shape to the food sources.

在这部影片中，模拟粘菌开始在土地平均分布，然后获得以适应其形状的食物来源。

dr. bonner learned of a north american species of slug-forming slime mold called dictyostelium discoides and began to raise them in his lab, studying them as a simple analog of animal embryos.

邦纳博士听说有一种会形成鼻涕虫状结构的北美黏菌物种，叫做盘基网柄菌（dictyosteliumdiscoides），并开始在实验室里培养，当成动物胚胎的简单类似物加以研究。

in 2010 he and his colleagues placed a slime mold in the middle of a map of spain and portugal, with pieces of food on the largest cities.

2010年他和同事把一个黏菌放在地图上西班牙和葡萄牙之间，并在各大城市的位置放上食物。

in the first trial, the scientists offered the slime mold food chunks that contained 3 percent oat flakes in the dark, and 5 percent oat flakes in bright light.

第一次试验，他们将含有3%麦片的食物放在暗处，含有5%麦片的另一份放在亮光下。

the slime mold abandoned its tendrils near the salt and then grew a new highway pattern that efficiently rerouted food across canada.

黏菌放弃了海盐附近的卷须，形成了一个新的公路网，将食物通过这个新路线高效地运过了加拿大。

other studies have shown that the slime mold lineage is immensely old.

其他的研究显示黏菌家族相当古老。

if some countries started to build highways from scratch, i would recommend to them to follow the slime mold routes,” dr. adamatzky said.

「如果一些国家刚开始建造公路，我提议他们采纳黏菌的路线，」亚达马特兹基博士说。

the approach is 「a delight」 says mark fricker of the university of oxford in england who is using slime mold behavior to build more efficient networks.

这一方法在英国牛津大学的markfricker看来十分令人欣喜，markfricker正在从事黏菌行为方面的研究，以建立更为高效的网络。

the slime mold grew a network of tentacles that was nearly identical to the actual highway system on the iberian peninsula.

黏菌长出的触角网络几乎和伊比利亚半岛上真实的公路系统一模一样。

by analyzing the dna of different slime mold species, researchers are reconstructing their evolutionary history, which turns out to reach back about a billion years.

通过分析不同种类黏菌的dna，研究人员重新建构了他们的进化史，结果竟然回溯到10亿年前。

in 2003, dr. stephenson and other slime mold experts embarked on a worldwide expedition to get a better understanding of the global diversity of these creatures.

2003年，斯蒂芬森和其他黏菌专家开始了一项世界范围的考察，目的是更好地了解这种生物的全球多样性。