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The blob, a slimy, mysterious and extraordinary creature, has been the subject of experiments in several classes in France. The CNRS is now asking 10,000 amateur researchers to carry out experiments at home.
CNRS offers “a participatory experience”. “10,000 volunteers will be recruited to work from March to May 2022 on the blob”, announces the journalist Jean-Christophe Batteria, present Friday October 22 on the set of 12/13. What exactly is a blob? “It is a unicellular being, (…) inside the cell there is a nucleus with genetic material, then between the nucleus and the wall, there is a cytoplasm which allows it to digest its prey”, explains the journalist. The blob wakes up on contact with moisture or its favorite food, oatmeal.
“Where it is exceptional is that these cells can be up to 10 cm in diameter”. But no more, reassures Jean-Christophe Batteria. “The blob has no brain, but it establishes logical paths, it can get out of labyrinths, (…) it learns and it never reproduces the same error twice”, continues the journalist. CNRS researchers will ask amateur researchers to “work one hour a day”, in particular to vary the lighting or humidity conditions, to measure the size of the blob and to take a picture of it.
The organization hopes, in passing, to arouse vocations.