Physarum Itinerae: Evolution of Roman Roads with Slime Mould

E-ISSN： 1941-6326|3|2|31-55

ISSN： 1941-6318

Source： International Journal of Nanotechnology and Molecular Computation (IJNMC), Vol.3, Iss.2, 2011-04, pp. : 31-55

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

The Roman Empire is renowned for sharp logical design and outstanding building quality of its road system. Many roads built by Romans are still used in continental Europe and UK. The Roman roads were built for military transportations with efficiency in mind, as straight as possible. Thus the roads make an ideal test-bed for developing experimental laboratory techniques for evaluating man-made transport systems using living creatures. The authors imitate development of road networks in Iron Age Italy using slime mould Physarum polycephalum. The authors represent ten Roman cities with oat flakes, inoculate the slime mould in Roma, wait as mould spans all flakes-cities with its network of protoplasmic tubes, and analyse structures of the protoplasmic networks. The authors found that most Roman roads, a part of those linking Placentia to Bononia and Genua to Florenzia are represented in development of Physarum polycephalum. Transport networks developed by Romans and by slime mould show similarities of planar proximity graphs, and particular minimum spanning tree. Based on laboratory experiments the authors reconstructed a speculative sequence of road development in Iron Age Italy.