Slime mold acts as memory device to create music

BBC : The tubules that sprout from the slime mold Physarum polycephalum behave in a way akin to an electronic component called a memristor: a resistor whose resistance changes in response to previously applied voltages. Musician Eduardo Miranda and computer scientist Ed Braund, both of Plymouth University in the UK, have exploited that property to create a musical duet. Miranda plays a sequence of notes on a piano, which is then converted into an electronic signal and fed into a tray of P. polycephalum. The mold transforms the signal into a new one based, in part, on the previous sequence of notes. The transformed signal then activates electromagnets that pluck the corresponding piano strings while Miranda continues to play the piano conventionally. The duet will make its public debut on 1 March at the Peninsular Arts Contemporary Music Festival in Plymouth.