Discovery
The cellular slime molds were formerly considered to be "lower fungi" since their discovery in 1869 by Brefeld. Although they superficially resemble fungi in some respects, they are included in the kingdom Protista and they are not actually slimy. Individual cells resemble small amoebae and move and feed in an amoeboid manner, thus they are called "myxamoebae" (to distinguish them from true amoebae). D. discoideum was discovered in 1935 in a forest in North Carolina and has since been found, along with similar genera, in many such environments around the world. The myxamoebae feed on bacteria in decaying vegatation, and reproduce by binary fission as do all amoebae. D. discoideum is the most studied of the genus.
Read more about this topic: Dictyostelium
Famous quotes containing the word discovery:
“We early arrive at the great discovery that there is one mind common to all individual men: that what is individual is less than what is universal ... that error, vice and disease have their seat in the superficial or individual nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son’s future are counting on me.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
“One of the laudable by-products of the Freudian quackery is the discovery that lying, in most cases, is involuntary and inevitable—that the liar can no more avoid it than he can avoid blinking his eyes when a light flashes or jumping when a bomb goes off behind him.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)