A blob, a curious organism that is neither animal, plant, nor fungus, will be cultured aboard the International Space Station, under the eye of astronaut Thomas Pesquet, CNES (National Center space studies) calls on schools to join in the experience on Earth.
Composed of a single cell, the “physarum polycephalum”, commonly called “blob”, is a living species apart: without a mouth or brain, it eats, moves and has amazing learning capacities.
Several specimens will be hosted on board the Space Station (ISS), where they will be the subject of scientific experiments. The goal is to see “if the blob behaves differently in space”, and to study “the effects of microgravity and radiation on its evolution”, details CNES, the French space agency, in a press release.
As part of its mission Alpha, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who is due to fly to the ISS on April 22, “will be responsible for waking him up and photographing his evolution according to two protocols”: one will test the attitude of two blobs in an environment without food, the other will provide two other blobs with multiple food sources.
CNES and CNRS invite 2000 schools, colleges and high schools to join this “educational experience” and “compare their results in class with those obtained” in orbit.
In the classes as in the Station, the blobs will be delivered in the state of “sclerotia”, that is to say dehydrated, before being rehydrated to carry out the experiments.
The blob is the subject of research in the study laboratory of Audrey Dussutour, CNRS research director at the Center for Research on Animal Cognition in Toulouse.