The slime mold Dictyostelium is a single-celled amoeba. The weird thing about it is that upon a chemical signal, millions of slime molds can "clump" into a mound that then moves around as if was a single organism. But it turns out the story is even weirder: Rice University biologists discovered that these amoebas can discriminate their own kins - and will altruistically sacrifice themselves for their relatives! |