A Billion Years of Slime

Available for over a year

Slime is an ambiguous thing. It exists somewhere between a solid and a liquid. It inspires revulsion even while it compels our fascination in fiction and on the screen. It is both a vehicle for pathogens and the strongest weapon in our immune system. Many of us know little about it, yet it is the substance on which our world turns. Sirine Saba reads from Susanne Wedlich’s ground-breaking new book which leads us on a journey through the 3-billion-year history of slime. There is probably no single living creature that does not depend on slime in some way. Most organisms use slime for a number of functions: as a structural material, as jellyfish do; for propagation, as plants do; to catch prey, as frogs do; for defence, like the hagfish; or for movement, like snails. In this final episode, the story of how slime dominated the Earth for a billion years and the crucial role it played in the evolution of life. And, with climate change, some scientists think slime could re-emerge to dominate the planet for another billion years. Written by Susanne Wedlich and translated by Ayça Türkoğlu Abridged and produced by Jane Greenwood A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4