Complex sentence: Atsushi Tero of Hokkaido University grew the slime mold "Physarum polycephalum" in a flat wet dish, placing the mold in a central position representing Tokyo and oat flakes surrounding it corresponding to the locations of other major cities in the Greater Tokyo Area.
Split into simpler sentences: Atsushi Tero of Hokkaido University grew the slime mold "Physarum polycephalum" in a flat wet dish. He placed the mold in a central position representing Tokyo, and he placed oat flakes in the dish corresponding to the locations of other major cities in the Greater Tokyo Area.