Thread by @euronewsnext

This unclassifiable organism will live out millions of people’s dreams by flying into orbit this week. 🚀

So what is the purpose of the universe's newest astronaut? 👇

All sorts of objects have been sent into space; from a rubber duck sporting the England football team’s badge to a €6,000 bottle of French wine. 🍾

Now the International Space Station is preparing to welcome another a-typical tenant. 🛰️

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Meet Blob, the world’s newest astronaut. 👨‍🚀

Better known as "slime mould," Blob appeared on Earth over 500 million years ago, way before animals began colonising the land. 🌏

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Physarum polycephalum or Blob as his friends call him, is made up of one cell and several nuclei. 🟡

He’s a spongy yellow mass with no mouth, brain or legs. Yet he is thriving. He moves (albeit very slowly) and has amazing learning abilities. 👩‍🏫

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Blob also has no time for the sexual binary. The organism has more than 720 sexual types.

Quite progressive for a 500 million year-old. 💁‍♀️

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The initiative is part of a large experiment that will see 350,000 school children get involved. 🧒

It has been organised by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. 🧑‍🚀

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The goal is to observe the effects of weightlessness on Blob compared with those being tested by students on Earth. 🧪

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And the experiments could shake the foundations of other scientific theories. 🥼

"We say that every cell divides into two cells. With the blob, it does not work that way, since it is a single cell that grows without ever dividing itself." ❓

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Read in full. 👇
euronews.com/next/2021/08/0…