After tardigrades and glow-in-the-dark squids, the "Blob" recently embarked on a space mission to the International Space Station (ISS).?
The unusual guest blasted into orbit on Tuesday. But it's difficult to ascertain who's the alien in this scenario, for the Blob evades classification even on its home planet Earth.?
It cannot be classified as a plant, animal, fungus, or even fish.Officially called "Physarum polycephalum", the Blob is a type of slime mould and has remained the object of scientists' admiration and confusion.?
Now, it will participate in a peculiar experiment which will take place both in space and on land.?
Astronauts aboard the ISS will carry out experiments on the Blob at the same time as thousands of school students in France.?
The Blob as we know it appeared on planet Earth about 500 million years ago. It stands out owing to its unconventional make-up wherein it represents a single cell possessing multiple nuclei.?
Most organisms grow and reproduce by the division and multiplication of cells, but Physarum Polycephalum does not employ the process, thereby escaping any attempts at classification.?
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Pierre Ferrand, a professor Earth Sciences at French space agency CNES and one of the key people behind the projects explained to Science Alert that the Blob is a single cell which grows without dividing or multiplying.?
It gets more absurd! While most known organisms have two sex types, the Blob has over 720 sex types!?
Referring to it as an organism "with drawers", Ferrand believes the Blob represents the diversity of life.?
The Blob is a green-yellowish slimy mould without a mouth, legs, or brain for support. While these may come off as disadvantages to other life forms, the Blob is able to eat and move, even if a lot slower than the rest of us.?
Besides mind-numbing learning abilities, the Blob's also has another odd characteristic. The creature's DNA floats inside the walls of its cells, instead of being constrained inside a nucleus like most organisms.?
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Due to this disadvantage (or advantage) the Blob is able to cast off its parts as it pleases.?
Couldn't get freakier? Unless it could! Turns out, the Blob can also dehydrate itself in a process called "sclerotia" to enter a state of dormancy.?
This is the state in which the Blob tagged along supplies on a refuelling freighter on its way to the ISS.Four sclerotia will be rehydrated in September, ending their month-long slumber in Petri-dishes.?
All samples of the Blob came from the same parent Blob cell, officially labelled as LU352. Scientists want to understand how weightlessness will affect the elusive organism.?
Mind you, though! There will no fancy treaties and scientific papers written based on this experiment, for it is an extended arm of a French school project.?
The Blob will be observed under two conditions: one wherein certain parts of the Blobs will be deprived of food. On the other hand, some parts will be fed porridge oats.?
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Ferrand, et al want to understand how the Blob will behave in a microgravity environment. "What direction will it move in?", Ferrand told Science Alert, while wondering whether the organism will go sideways, upwards, or forms pillars to attain height.?
On Earth, thousands of specimen from the same LU352 blob will be distributed among 4,500 schools and colleges in France.?
When the sclerotia are resuscitated in space, their equivalents on Earth will also be rehydrated.?
Then, scientists will compare the route taken by the Blob in space vis-a-vis Earth, hoping to solve mysteries surrounding the basics of life on Earth... and this time also in space!??