Slimes Exposed: What are slimes exactly?

What are slimes exactly?

We know slimes are elusive mobs that hop around deep underground and in swamps at night, but just what are they exactly? Could slimes like the ones we see in minecraft take hold somewhere else? Yes in fact, They already do have residence in another world we're familiar with : our own real world!

There are over 900 species of known slime moulds all over the globe today, and they are quite an impressive force that continues to surprise biologists worldwide. So what are they made of? Slime colonies consist of massive amounts of amoebas encased together in a slimy membrane. Even though these individual tiny single cell organisms can't be seen with the naked eye alone, Their collective colonies can grow to some massive dimensions.
So imagine what would happen if you were to say... cut one of these huge colonies in half with your fancy diamond sword? Actually, exactly what happens in the game: You simply divide the colony into two groups of amoebas and wind up with two smaller but viable slime populations. The difference is that in the real world, the two halves would actually move to merge back together and re-unite into one entity. Slime colonies in the real world are self-repairing, so think about that the next time you're splitting them in two deep in your caves and mines.

Amoebas are tiny, so how big can a slime colony really get?

The largest known colony of slimes found so far appeared in Texas. A massive slimy civilization was discovered grazing on bacteria in a cow pasture. This epic empire of slime stretched an amazing 40 feet across, that's 12.192 meters wide! If you aren't sure exactly how big that really is, allow me to put that into perspective for you :

You might need a bigger sword for that one.

Amoebas? Are they really that smart?

Amoebas lack a brain, and any semblance of a central nervous system for that matter. So how "smart" can a single cell organism really get? Surely they can't measure up to the slime AI we see in Minecraft... or can they? Scientists refer to slime moulds as "social amoebas" which is by far less of an oxymoron than it sounds. They group together to act as one single entity and actually make decisions for the best interest of the colony overall, exhibiting a social collective consciousness. The species Physarum polycephalum for example has shown some truly remarkable abilites. Watch this very short video to see what happens when you put Physarum polycephalum and food in a maze:

As you can see from the video, a mass of amoebas found the most efficient path through the maze to get to the tasty treat at the end! That's not bad for a species with no brain. So what happens when you put more than one food source in it's environment at a time? It actually will move towards the healthiest of it's options! So that would explain why the slimes you see in Minecraft try to attack the player: for the simple fact that you are the most nutritional food source around!

But they only spawn in select chunks or in swamps

As the slime moves it leaves behind a substance which lets the colony know that it's already explored that area, and they will not return to it. So this might explain why in Minecraft they never appear in some chunks: the colonies have been there before the player ever got there, and the slimes have already devoured all of the bacteria living there. So they left, never to return.
On the other hand, you will also find slimes hopping around on the surface in swamps. Is there a real-life explanation for this? Of course there is. The vast array of plant life that grows in swamps slows the rate of flow and turbulence in the waters there. Still water means there's very little oxygen in the lands and waters found there, and oxygen is a top survival need for most biological organisms. Phototrophic bacteria which uses light and carbon dioxide however thrive in this environment where very little else can. This means swamps are often filled to the rims with massive populations of bacteria. All of these piles of bacteria are very tasty and nutritious snacks for slimes! So a swamp is like an all-you-can-eat buffet for a slime, and that's why you would find them there gorging themselves on all kinds of microscopic wildlife.

Why do they hop?

To offer an explanation for this question, let's turn to the species Dictyostelium discoideum.

(No, they don't really have faces. They would only grow a face if it were in their best interest to do so.)

These colonies spend much of their time grazing on bacteria they find in their habitat. They'll continue eating and growing their numbers, that is until food becomes scarce. Once the colony has exhausted it's food supply, the clumps of amoebas join into one massive mobile "slug" formation and begin their journey to their next home. Once the slug finds an ideal location to make the "jump" to the greener pastures ahead, the slimes begin to form an upright structure. The amoebas in this stage will have one of two possible fates: They either become spores which will move on to their next home, or they sacrifice themselves and die to become a part of a stalk for the spores to launch themselves from.
Hmmmm... Wait a minute. A bunch of slimy gooey creatures sacrificing themselves to build a tower so that the rest of them can rise up and survive? That reminds me of another game I've played before:

(By the way, if you haven't played World of Goo yet, go get it as soon as you finish reading this post. That game is absolutely wonderful and amazing.)

Those blobs of spores you see standing on the stalks getting ready to depart are actually sticky, which explains some of their useful properties in Minecraft. Whether or not you can smash them to make a piston stick to things in the real world has yet to be scientifically proven however.
As the masses of slime spores climb to the top of the stalk and launch themselves towards the next grazing land, they might have the appearance of "hopping".

Itty Bitty Farmers?

Some strains of Dictyostelium discoideum don't completely exhaust their food supply. They'll stop eating when their food levels drop to a certain point and it's time to move on. Instead of finishing off their food completely, they actually pack up the remaining bacteria and take it with them when the spores move to their new place. Why? So the bacteria can grow in the new habitat and thus make more food available for the slimes! That's right, they're blobs of little tiny unicellular farmers.

Now you know your slimes!

Now hopefully the next time you see a slime bouncing around in your Minecraft world, you'll know a little more about it. That kind of deep understanding really brings two together doesn't it? I still don't recommend trying to cuddle up with it though, that's probably still a bad idea.
Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this post. It was a ton of fun to research and put this together for you to read (yeah, I'm a nerdy girl but I'm OK with that.)
Stay tuned and I'll see you next time :)
~Nichole

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/science/24amoe.html?_r=2&
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/576214/swamp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold
http://www.discoverbiotech.com/wiki/-/wiki/Main/Phototrophic+Bacteria
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/110119-amoebas-smallest-farmers-discodeum-science-nature-bacteria/

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Improved Outdoor Auto Switch Lights

I get asked frequently while playing online to help people with various redstone contraptions they want to build. One of the frequent requests is lighting for homes and towns that toggle at night. Usually they start tossing tons of sticky pistons and daylight sensors my way to build them, but I'd like to point why that's really not necessary.

The Common Basic Model

Let's examine the basic model I see commonly used today. It consists of a daylight sensor which sits on a sticky piston. When the sensor loses light, the piston retracts, pulling a redstone block up to power the lamps.

Sure, this is nice. But it does come with a few big disadvantages:

1. It's Noisy

Pistons make noise, so this means something which should ideally be silent such as a street light shouts out a loud "KA-THUNK" every time it toggles. Imagine you're in bed, trying to get to sleep for the night, and just as you start to drift off you are alerted by the sudden earthquake that happens as every light post in your town turns on for the night. That's enough to make a lot of cranky citizens.

2. It's Laggy

A large amount of pistons firing at one time can mean lag spikes for servers. So when your town's lights toggle, it could make everyone around skip a few frames. If you have enough lamps for a large town, you might get some unwanted attention from your server's moderators for causing nightly lag spikes for something as mundane as lamps.

3. It's Expensive

In this model, every light needs it's own sticky piston and daylight sensor. That means a lot of time spent digging around deep underground hunting for elusive rare slimes, and lurking in the nether gathering the quartz you need for all of those sensors. I don't particularly enjoy going to the nether, so I use everything I get there sparingly. If you are lighting an entire town with this model you'd better be prepared to spend massive amounts of effort, or cash in servers with an economy plugin.

4. It toggles when it's already dark

As you can see from the pic above, The night has already overtaken the sky. Creepers and skellys are roaming the lands hunting for you. Your street lights however, are still hesitating to shine.

There is a better way!

Let's have a look at an alternative to this model that addresses the disadvantages of doing things that way.

In this model, you can use a single daylight sensor to control all of your lights. Plus, you don't need any pistons at all, and that means no slimes are necessary and the lamps sound exactly as lights should: silence. This method involves digging a trench to connect your lights, sure, but it's one block wide and easily patched up with dirt/grass. The redstone directly beneath the sensor picks up the signal, and carries it downstream to the array of lights. Make sure your first element, either a light post or a repeater, is about 6 blocks horizontally away from the daylight sensor. The signal toggles a 1x1 vertical column of inverter redstone torches, with the top torch powering the lamps. Use a repeater after every lamp post to pick up the redstone signal and continue to the next light post. The signal from the sensor degrades by 6 by the time it hits the first repeater or lamp post, and that means your lights toggle at twilight instead of complete darkness.

The sun is on it's way down over the horizon, but this time your lamps are already doing their job and illuminating your streets and keeping them safe for you and your townfolk.

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See you next time! ~Nichole

Let's Start Digging!

Hello All!

Welcome to The Diamond Excavator! (A Minecraft Blog).

  Over the past couple years I have spent many hours enjoying the wonderful game of Minecraft!
I'm starting this blog to share some of my adventures, knowledge, and skills with the Minecraft community so others can hopefully benefit from the information I share. It's going to be informative, funny, and entertaining! Let's take a look at what's coming up:

What to Expect

• Adventures

    Sometimes we all encounter things out of the ordinary when exploring the vast reaches of our worlds, and I'd like to share mine as well as invite you to share some of yours. You'll find the funny, the strange, and amusing pieces of our adventures here.

• Building

    Along with most other experienced players, I simply refuse to live in a wooden box. That's where I started, that's where we all first start out : punch a tree and build a box to live in so you don't get pwned by monsters at night. However, after a bit of resource collecting and experience we decide it's time to move on from our box houses and apply some of our own creativity to build something thats as pretty as it is functional. So I'll share some of my typical building styles here, and hopefully inspire some to go create wonderful artistic buildings on their own!

• Redstone

    An engineer at heart, I love redstone and the capability to build fascinating machines in the game. Through my multiplayer experiences I have only encountered a few people with the knowledge to build these fun machines, so I'd like to provide a guide for both new and seasoned redstone engineers.

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  You want to stay updated on everything happening here, so subscribe, and leave a comment to let me know what YOU think, and what YOU want to see here!

  See you next time (soon!) :)

  ~Nikki