Brainless

Matthew Syed follows the extraordinary journey of a French scientist who found signs of learning, problem-solving and remembering…in a blob of slime. Not the Ghostbusters kind, but in a slime MOULD. It's a single celled, brainless organism that has become a bit of a star in France for its unexpected capabilities.

In this episode, Matthew considers the intelligence that lies in unexpected places, beyond the confines of a brain.

With contributions from Audrey Dussutour (Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS), Dr. Pamela Lyon (Independent Researcher and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide), and Dr. Michael Levin (Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor of Biology and Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University and faculty member at the Wyss Institute at Harvard.)

Featuring archive from the online educational video ‘Elève Ton Blob : l'expérience éducative du CNES.’ Produced by CNES (Centre National d'Études Spatiales) and QuiS production Toulouse in 2021.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Vishva Samani
Editor: Katherine Godfrey
Production Manager: Joe Savage
Sound Design and Engineering: Nicholas Alexander and Daniel Kempson
Theme tune by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4