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"Farming" Amoebas Discovered 49

Researchers from Rice University have found a type of amoeba that practices a sort of "primitive farming behavior." When their bacteria food become scarce, the Dictyostelium discoideum will group together and form a "fruiting body" that will disperse bacteria spores to a new area. From the article: "The behavior falls short of the kind of 'farming' that more advanced animals do; ants, for example, nurture a single fungus species that no longer exists in the wild. But the idea that an amoeba that spends much of its life as a single-celled organism could hold short of consuming a food supply before decamping is an astonishing one. More than just a snack for the journey of dispersal, the idea is that the bacteria that travel with the spores can 'seed' a new bacterial colony, and thus a food source in case the new locale should be lacking in bacteria." It's good to know that even a single celled creature is not immune to the pull of Farmville.

Comment Antique Computers (Score 1) 622

I own a warehouse full of old computers, all versions of TRS80's, Apple's, Amiga's, Zenith kits, NeXt, Heathkit's, and many more. They all work and have 8" drives, old external floppies for TRS80's as well as 5 Meg hard drives. Software for all the systems. All versions of DOS and Windows (version 1 up), old versions of many old software packages (especially versions 1). Want to create a computer museum someday (especially if I can find someone who would like to help) I live in NC.

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