This single organism is now reshaping scientific storytelling and interdisciplinary research.

Join us for an engaging presentation by Maria Dębińska, exploring their research on the slime mold Physarum polycephalum and its diverse applications across biology, arts, and computer science. This talk will delve into how Physarum‘s unique properties (neither fungus, plant, nor animal but exhibiting traits of intelligence, memory, and learning) challenge traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Discover how this fascinating organism inspires imaginative practices, from computer scientists envisioning world colonization scenarios to biologists crafting science fiction narratives. We’ll also explore the dual meanings of “speculation” as both probability calculation and future envisioning, and how these intersect in Physarum experiments.

The presentation will be conducted in English.

Maria Dębińska is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She received her PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Warsaw in 2015 and published her thesis on transgender politics in Poland in 2020 under the title Transgender in Poland: Production of a Category (in Polish). Her current research project, Slime Mold as a Method: Ethnography of Scientific Practice, investigates how the slime mold Physarum polycephalum is engaged in modeling and reinventing human relations.

Find the complete Cozzzmonautica program here.