caa a22 4500 445842776 CHVBK 20180317145350.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110901xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11047-011-9255-z doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11047-011-9255-z Approximating Mexican highways with slime mould [Elektronische Daten] [Andrew Adamatzky, Genaro Martínez, Sergio Chapa-Vergara, René Asomoza-Palacio, Christopher Stephens] Plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum is a single cell visible by unaided eye. During its foraging behavior the cell spans spatially distributed sources of nutrients with a protoplasmic network. The geometrical structure of the protoplasmic networks allows the plasmodium to optimize transport of nutrients between remote parts of its body. Assuming major Mexican cities are sources of nutrients that need to be distributed across Mexico, how much does the structure of the Physarum protoplasmic network correspond to the structure of Mexican Federal highway network? To address the issue we undertook a series of laboratory experiments with living P. polycephalum. We represent geographical locations of major cities (19 locations) by oat flakes, place a piece of plasmodium in the area corresponding to Mexico city, record the plasmodium's foraging behavior and extract topology of the resulting nutrient transport networks. Results of our experiments show that the protoplasmic network formed by Physarum is isomorphic, subject to limitations imposed, to a network of principal highways. Ideas and results in the paper may contribute towards future developments in bio-inspired road planning. Springer Science+Business Media B.V., 2011 Bio-inspired computing nationallicence Physarum polycephalum nationallicence Pattern formation nationallicence Mexican highways nationallicence Road planning nationallicence Adamatzky Andrew Unconventional Computing Centre, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, Bristol, UK aut Martínez Genaro Unconventional Computing Centre, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, Bristol, UK aut Chapa-Vergara Sergio Ingeniería Eléctrica, Departamento de Computación, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico, Mexico aut Asomoza-Palacio René Ingeniería Eléctrica, Departamento de Computación, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico, Mexico aut Stephens Christopher Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares and Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, Mexico aut Natural Computing Springer Netherlands 10/3(2011-09-01), 1195-1214 1567-7818 10:3<1195 2011 10 11047 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-011-9255-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11047-011-9255-z text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Adamatzky Andrew Unconventional Computing Centre, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, Bristol, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Martínez Genaro Unconventional Computing Centre, University of the West of England, BS16 1QY, Bristol, UK aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Chapa-Vergara Sergio Ingeniería Eléctrica, Departamento de Computación, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico, Mexico aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Asomoza-Palacio René Ingeniería Eléctrica, Departamento de Computación, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico, Mexico aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Stephens Christopher Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares and Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico, Mexico aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Natural Computing Springer Netherlands 10/3(2011-09-01), 1195-1214 1567-7818 10:3<1195 2011 10 11047 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer