slime molds

Single-celled slime molds, which lack brains yet can solve mazes, optimize networks, and learn simple patterns, are at the center of a growing scientific dispute over how intelligence should be defined. Researchers disagree on whether such abilities reflect genuine cognition or simpler biological processes, a question with implications for neuroscience, philosophy, and artificial intelligence.

Slime molds—single-celled organisms with no brain—are once again at the centre of a scientific debate about intelligence. The organisms can solve mazes, optimise networks and remember without neurons, leading researchers to argue over whether such behaviour counts as genuine cognition or merely sophisticated chemistry. The dispute touches on how broadly science should define intelligence and whether it requires a nervous system at all.