The most efficient way? Ask mold
Placing the favorite dishes of Physarum plycephalum mold mimicking the map of Japan, and placing mold in the place that corresponds to Tokyo, researchers at the University of Oxford have discovered that mold acquires a form similar to the communications network between Tokyo and the most important towns and cities around it, as it grows. Therefore, it could be possible to design roads or other transportation networks based on molds.
The explanation for all this is how to eat the viscous liqueur Physarum plycephalum. Mold, when found in food, branches over edible particles. Instead, when forking more, it simplifies the network created leaving only the branches that receive the most nutrients.
During the Japanese map experiment, the researchers turned the main cities into large sources of nutrients (with popcorn in the places corresponding to the cities) and observed for 26 hours the growth of mold. Well, they found that the appearance of the grid created by mold is very similar to the existing railway network in the Tokyo area.
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