Single-celled slime moulds could be programmed as robots (Image: Visuals Unlimited / Corbis)

THOUGH not famed for their intellect, single-celled organisms have already demonstrated a surprising degree of intelligence. Now a team at the University of the West of England (UWE) has secured £228,000 in funding to turn these organisms into engineering robots.

In recent years, single-celled organisms have been used to control six-legged robots, but Andrew Adamatzky at UWE wants to go one step further by making a complete “robot” out of a plasmodium slime mould, Physarum polycephalum, a commonly occurring mould that moves towards food sources …