Abstract
We overview families of Boolean logical gates and circuits implemented in computer models and experimental laboratory prototypes of computing devices made of living slime mould Physarum polycephalum. These include attraction gates, based on chemo-tactic behaviour of slime mould; ballistic gates, employing inertial movement of the slime mould’s active zones and a repulsion between growing zones; repellent gates, exploited photo avoidance of P. polycephalum; frequency gates, based on modification of electrical potential oscillations frequency in protoplasmic tubes; fluidic gates, where a tactical response of the protoplasmic tubes is used for the actuation of two- and four-input logical gates and memory devices; and circuits based on quantitative transformations which completely avoids spatial propagation, branching and crossings in the design of circuits.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
LEDs were chosen as the repellent input due to their comparative energy efficiency, long life span and low cost of manufacture, all of which are key properties for alternative computing technologies.
- 2.
Experiments are done by Theresa Schubert, Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany.
References
Adamatzky, A.: Manipulating substances with Physarum polycephalum. Mater. Sci. Eng. C 30(8), 1211–1220 (2010)
Adamatzky, A.: Slime mould logical gates: exploring ballistic approach (2010). arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.2301
Adamatzky, A.: Slime mould tactile sensor. Sens. Actuators B Chem. 188, 38–44 (2013)
Adamatzky, A.: Towards slime mould colour sensor: recognition of colours by Physarum polycephalum. Org. Electron. 14(12), 3355–3361 (2013)
Adamatzky, A., Schubert, T.: Slime mold microfluidic logical gates. Mater. Today 17(2), 86–91 (2014)
Aldrich, H.: Cell Biology of Physarum and Didymium V1: Organisms, Nucleus, and Cell Cycle. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2012)
Cheow, L.F., Yobas, L., Kwong, D.-L.: Digital microfluidics: droplet based logic gates. Appl. Phys. Lett. 90(5), 054107 (2007)
De Lacy, B., Costello, A.A., Jahan, I., Zhang, L.: Towards constructing one-bit binary adder in excitable chemical medium. Chem. Phys. 381(1), 88–99 (2011)
Fingerle, J., Gradmann, D.: Electrical properties of the plasma membrane of microplasmodia of Physarum polycephalum. J. Membr. Biol. 68(1), 67–77 (1982)
Heilbrunn, L.V., Daugherty, K.: The electric charge of protoplasmic colloids. Physiol. Zool. 12(1), 1–12 (1939)
Iwamura, T.: Electric impedance of the plasmodium of a slime mold, Physarum polycephalum. Cytologia 17(4), 322–328 (1952)
Jones, J.: Passive vs active approaches in particle approximations of reaction-diffusion computing. Int. J. Nanotechnol. Mol. Comput. 1(3), 37–63 (2009)
Jones, J., Adamatzky, A.: Towards Physarum binary adders. Biosystems 101(1), 51–58 (2010)
Jones, J., Whiting, J.G.H., Adamatzky, A.: Quantitative transformation for implementation of adder circuits in physical systems. Biosystems 134, 16–23 (2015)
Kamiya, N., Abe, S.: Bioelectric phenomena in the myxomycete plasmodium and their relation to protoplasmic flow. J. Colloid Sci. 5(2), 149–163 (1950)
Kirby, B.J.: Micro-and Nanoscale Fluid Mechanics: Transport in Microfluidic Devices. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2010)
Knowles, D.J., Carlile, M.J.: The chemotactic response of plasmodia of the myxomycete Physarum polycephalum to sugars and related compounds. J. Gen. Microbiol. 108(1), 17–25 (1978)
Marr, D.W.M., Munakata, T.: Micro/nanofluidic computing. Commun. ACM 50(9), 64–68 (2007)
Mayne, R., Adamatzky, A.: Slime mould foraging behaviour as optically-coupled logical operations. Int. J. Gen. Syst. 44(3), 305–313 (2015)
Mayne, R., Adamatzky, A.: Toward hybrid nanostructure-slime mould devices. Nano LIFE 5(01), 1450007 (2015)
Mayne, R., Adamatzky, A.: Towards hybrid nanostructure-slime mould devices. Nano LIFE 5(1), 140007 (2015)
Mayne, R., Tsompanas, M.-A., Sirakoulis, G.C., Adamatzky, A.: Towards a slime mould-FPGA interface. Biomed. Eng. Lett. 5(1), 51–57 (2015)
Mosadegh, B., Kuo, C.-H., Tung, Y.-C., Torisawa, Y.-S., Bersano-Begey, T., Tavana, H., Takayama, S.: Integrated elastomeric components for autonomous regulation of sequential and oscillatory flow switching in microfluidic devices. Nat. Phys. 6(6), 433–437 (2010)
Prakash, M., Gershenfeld, N.: Microfluidic bubble logic. Science 315(5813), 832–835 (2007)
Seifriz, W.: A theory of protoplasmic streaming. Science 86(2235), 397–398 (1937)
Steinbock, O., Tóth, Á., Showalter, K.: Navigating complex labyrinths: optimal paths from chemical waves. Science 210, 868–868 (1995)
Tabeling, P.: Introduction to Microfluidics. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2010)
Takagi, S., Ueda, T.: Emergence and transitions of dynamic patterns of thickness oscillation of the plasmodium of the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum. Physica D 237, 420–427 (2008)
Takamatsu, A., Fujii, T., Yokota, H., Hosokawa, K., Higuchi, T., Endo, I.: Controlling the geometry and the coupling strength of the oscillator system in plasmodium of Physarum polycephalum by microfabricated structure. Protoplasma 210(3–4), 164–171 (2000)
Tanyeri, M., Ranka, M., Sittipolkul, N., Schroeder, C.M.: A microfluidic-based hydrodynamic trap: design and implementation. Lab Chip 11(10), 1786–1794 (2011)
Tsuda, S., Aono, M., Gunji, Y.-P.: Robust and emergent physarum logical-computing. Biosystems 73, 45–55 (2004)
Tsuda, S., Jones, J.: The emergence of synchronization behavior in Physarum polycephalum and its particle approximation. Biosystems 103, 331–341 (2010)
Tsuda, S., Aono, M., Gunji, Y.P.: Robust and emergent Physarum logical-computing. Biosystems 73(1), 45–55 (2004)
Vestad, T., Marr, D.W.M., Munakata, T.: Flow resistance for microfluidic logic operations. Appl. Phys. Lett. 84(25), 5074–5075 (2004)
Whiting, J.G.H., de Lacy Costello, B.P.J., Adamatzky, A.: Sensory fusion in Physarum polycephalum and implementing multi-sensory functional computation. Biosystems 119, 45–52 (2014)
Whiting, J.G.H., de Lacy Costello, B.P.J., Adamatzk, A.: Towards slime mould chemical sensor: mapping chemical inputs onto electrical potential dynamics of Physarum polycephalum. Sens. Actuators B Chem. 191, 844–853 (2014)
Zhang, R., Dalton, C., Jullien, G.A.: Two-phase ac electrothermal fluidic pumping in a coplanar asymmetric electrode array. Microfluid. Nanofluid. 10(3), 521–529 (2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Adamatzky, A., Jones, J., Mayne, R., Tsuda, S., Whiting, J. (2016). Logical Gates and Circuits Implemented in Slime Mould. In: Adamatzky, A. (eds) Advances in Physarum Machines. Emergence, Complexity and Computation, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26662-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26662-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26661-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26662-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)