According to CNN, the Paris Zoo will exhibit a strange creature this Saturday, whose skin is bright yellow, can crawl at a speed of 4 centimeters per hour, although it can solve problems without a brain, and can heal itself by being cut in half.
The creature is known as blob, the name of an alien creature in a 1958 American horror film starring Steve McQueen. Its scientific name is actually "Polycephalic Veliculo", which is neither a plant nor an animal or a fungus. The creature is not male and female, but has 720 sexes. According to a press release from the zoo, it can also split into different organisms and then fuse them together.
The single-celled organism is believed to be about 1 billion years old, but it first came to the public's attention in May 1973, when a woman in Texas spotted a rapidly expanding yellow spot in her backyard. With its otherworldly, alien appearance, "Spots" once caused a sensation in the media, even alarming the New York Times.
But the "blob" from Texas died quickly, and it wasn't until new research published in 2016 caused a stir in the scientific community that the world remembered this strange slime creature that was almost forgotten.
The study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, was co-authored by Audrey Dussutour, a biologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Studies have shown that Velicocete polycystis can learn to ignore harmful substances and remember this behavior for up to a year.
Researchers at the zoo say slime mold is also thought to have the ability to solve problems such as finding the shortest path out of the maze and predicting changes in the environment.
According to a video released by the zoo, scientists initially bred the microbe in a Petri dish, feeding it its favorite food, oatmeal. Once it grows to a certain size, it is grafted onto the bark – which is its food source – and placed in a nursery box where visitors can see it from October 19.
Marlene Itan of the zoo said: "Acacia trees, rubber bark and chestnut bark are their favorite places. She added that "spots" are often found on the forest floor in Europe. "It thrives when the temperature fluctuates between 19 and 25 degrees Celsius and the humidity reaches 80-100 percent," she said. ”
According to the zoo's press release, it is almost immortal, with the only enemies being light and drought, but can hibernate for years when threatened.