Slime molds

It's stuff like this that almost led me to a career in biology. I'm about two-thirds of the way through Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", and he just mentioned what are commonly known as slime molds (not to be confused with officials of the NYC Transit Union).

Apparently, in good conditions, slime molds act as single-cell organisms (like an amoeba). When conditions get tougher, the individual organisms draw together and form into a slug. Scientists have no clue how they do it. The slug then finds a suitable spot and grows a plant-like stalk. At the end of the stalk, a pod full of spores grows. This pod eventually opens and spreads the slime mold cells in the wind, so they can find places to flourish.

I find this morphed animal-plant behavior amazing. And how do they know how to make themselves into a slug? It's just amazing!