Take the slime road (Image: University of the West of England)

A SLIMY road planner has rearranged the UK’s motorway network – and all in exchange for a hearty meal. A corrupt politician at work? No, it’s Physarum polycephalum, a yellow slime mould normally found growing in piles of rotten leaves and logs.

Jeff Jones and Andrew Adamatzky, specialists in unconventional computing at the University of the West of England in Bristol, wondered if biology could provide an alternative to conventional road planning methods. To find out, they created templates of the UK using a sheet of agar on which they …