Thursday, May 01, 2008
The Future of Computing
Silicon electronics are a staple of the computing industry, but researchers are now exploring other techniques to deliver powerful computers. Full article @ BBC NEWS | Technology
Labels: computation, technology
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Device 'spins silk like spiders'
A device that partially mimics the process by which spiders produce fine, yet super-strong, silks has been built. The team manufactured two genetically-engineered spider silk proteins using bacteria. These were fed into a device that consists of three channels etched into glass. More @ BBC NEWS | Science/Nature
A micrograph shows the artificial silk in more detail
Friday, April 25, 2008
Shedding Light on Life
Advances in optical microscopy reveal biological processes as they unfold. Full article @ Harvard Magazine. Check out the videos too. Thanks to Erik Wennstrom for the link!
Microtubules (green) and clathrin-coated pits (red). The pits are indentations in a cell’s surface that mediate certain extracellular interactions.
Labels: life, technology
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Edward N. Lorenz
Edward N. Lorenz, the MIT meteorologist whose efforts to use computers to increase the precision of weather forecasts inadvertently led to the discovery of chaos theory and demonstrated that precise long-range forecasts are impossible, died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 90.
Edward N. Lorenz, 90; scientist developed influential chaos theory - Los Angeles Times
Edward N. Lorenz, 90; scientist developed influential chaos theory - Los Angeles Times
Friday, April 18, 2008
Your Cells Are My Cells
Many, perhaps all, people harbor a small number of cells from genetically different individuals--from their mothers and, for women who have been pregnant, from their children. What in the world do these foreigners do in the body?
Very interesting summary of maternal and fetal microchimerism. Full article at Scientific American.
A deeper article in Nature about a chimeric condition in children.
Very interesting summary of maternal and fetal microchimerism. Full article at Scientific American.
A deeper article in Nature about a chimeric condition in children.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
US army develops robotic suits
On the big screen, films like Robocop, Universal Soldier and forthcoming release Iron Man show man-machines with superhuman powers. But in Utah they are turning science fiction into reality. Full story @BBC NEWS | Science/Nature
Friday, April 11, 2008
Darwinian Evolution on a Chip
Computer control of Darwinian evolution has been demonstrated by propagating a population of RNA enzymes in a microfluidic device. See article @ PLoS Biology
Friday, March 21, 2008
bat-inspired spy plane under development
A six-inch robotic spy plane modeled after a bat would gather data from sights, sounds and smells in urban combat zones and transmit information back to a soldier in real time. Full story @Physorg
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Boston Dynamics: Big Dog
From Art:
BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight. Boston Dynamics: The Leader in Lifelike Human Simulation
BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight. Boston Dynamics: The Leader in Lifelike Human Simulation
Synthetic genomes brought closer to life : Article : Nature Biotechnology
An entire bacterial genome has been reconstructed by stitching together chemically synthesized DNA fragments, bringing the prospect of an artificial living organism one step closer. Full stoey @ Nature Biotechnology
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Chemical brain controls nanobots
A tiny chemical "brain" which could one day act as a remote control for swarms of nano-machines has been invented. The molecular device - just two billionths of a metre across - was able to control eight of the microscopic machines simultaneously in a test. Full Story @
BBC NEWS|Science/Nature
BBC NEWS|Science/Nature
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
kinetic sculptor
Thanks to Chris Schneider, I am posting the work of Theo Jansen, a Dutch "kinetic sculptor," uses genetic algorithms to model virtual life forms with only one purpose: To survive at all costs. ... [Theo] builds them at full scale out of whatever supplies are available, and sets them loose on the local beaches. They are powered solely by the wind and are designed to walk at random the hard sand of the local beaches forever.
Labels: art, genetic algorithms, robots
Mendel upended?
How the behavior of an Arabidopsis gene could overturn the classical laws of genetics. Full Story @ The Scientist
Friday, February 22, 2008
How Human Intelligence Evolved--Is It Science or 'Paleofantasy'? -- Balter 319 (5866): 1028a -- Science
Stealing Encrypted Data by Freezing
"A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks." Full Story @ New York Times
I love how this method higlights the physical constarints on computing memory...
I love how this method higlights the physical constarints on computing memory...
Monday, February 18, 2008
Engineers create new adhesive that mimics gecko toe hairs
A new anti-sliding adhesive developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, may be the closest man-made material yet to mimic the remarkable gecko toe hairs that allow the tiny lizard to scamper along vertical surfaces and ceilings. Full story @ Physorg
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Slides for lectures 23 and 24
Lecture 23 - Collective Intelligence and the Immune System
Lecture 24 - The Adaptive Immune System
Special Presentation - Al Abi-Haidar: Artificial Immune Systems
Lecture 24 - The Adaptive Immune System
Special Presentation - Al Abi-Haidar: Artificial Immune Systems
Labels: immune system
Immune System Animations
Monday, December 03, 2007
links to lecture 23
Overview of the Immune System
Immunology movies at Cells Alive!
Immunobiology animations
An Interpretative Introduction to the Immune System. by S. A. Hofmeyr.
Immunology as information processing. by S. Forrest and S. A. Hofmeyr.
Immune System by Paul Bugl
Gary Carlson Biomedical images
Immunology movies at Cells Alive!
Immunobiology animations
An Interpretative Introduction to the Immune System. by S. A. Hofmeyr.
Immunology as information processing. by S. Forrest and S. A. Hofmeyr.
Immune System by Paul Bugl
Gary Carlson Biomedical images
Labels: immune system
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
A cool 3D L-system rendering tool
A couple of interesting programs
Ralf sent these and I must say they are great!
The first one deals with the prisoner's dilemma at it's core.
The second take an interesting view on how this inspired our view of genes and ultimately trans- and deformed our society. Btw the first 3 mins of each program are identical.
The first one deals with the prisoner's dilemma at it's core.
The second take an interesting view on how this inspired our view of genes and ultimately trans- and deformed our society. Btw the first 3 mins of each program are identical.
Labels: genetics, Prisoner's Dilemma
Monday, November 19, 2007
Slides for Lecture 22 plus special presentation online
Lecture 22 - Swarm Algorithms
Special Presentation - Joseph Renneisen: Helbing et al "Simulating dynamical features of escape panic" Paper
Special Presentation - Joseph Renneisen: Helbing et al "Simulating dynamical features of escape panic" Paper
Labels: ant colony optimization, ants, collective behavior, collective intelligence
Links for Lecture 22
Dirk Helbing's Videos and Simulations
Traffic Dynamics in Urban Road Networks
Mexican Wave
Simulate Escape Panic
Lane Formation in a Street
Traffic Dynamics in Urban Road Networks
Mexican Wave
Simulate Escape Panic
Lane Formation in a Street
Labels: modeling, social agents
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A Robotic Future
Special Issue on Robotics @ Science/AAAS | Table of Contents: 16 November 2007; 318 (5853)
See:
Making Machines That Make Others of Their Kind. (Though this piece continues the tradition of looking at self-replication as the main concept behind Von neumann's scheme, when its greatest insight is open-ended evolution).
Self-Organization, Embodiment, and Biologically Inspired Robotics: "Robotics researchers increasingly agree that ideas from biology and self-organization can strongly benefit the design of autonomous robots. Biological organisms have evolved to perform and survive in a world characterized by rapid changes, high uncertainty, indefinite richness, and limited availability of information. Industrial robots, in contrast, operate in highly controlled environments with no or very little uncertainty. Although many challenges remain, concepts from biologically inspired (bio-inspired) robotics will eventually enable researchers to engineer machines for the real world that possess at least some of the desirable properties of biological organisms, such as adaptivity, robustness, versatility, and agility".
See:
Making Machines That Make Others of Their Kind. (Though this piece continues the tradition of looking at self-replication as the main concept behind Von neumann's scheme, when its greatest insight is open-ended evolution).
Self-Organization, Embodiment, and Biologically Inspired Robotics: "Robotics researchers increasingly agree that ideas from biology and self-organization can strongly benefit the design of autonomous robots. Biological organisms have evolved to perform and survive in a world characterized by rapid changes, high uncertainty, indefinite richness, and limited availability of information. Industrial robots, in contrast, operate in highly controlled environments with no or very little uncertainty. Although many challenges remain, concepts from biologically inspired (bio-inspired) robotics will eventually enable researchers to engineer machines for the real world that possess at least some of the desirable properties of biological organisms, such as adaptivity, robustness, versatility, and agility".
Labels: embodiment, Emergence, open-ended evolution, robots, self-organization, self-reproduction, synthetic biology
Robot Cockroach Tests Insect Decision-Making Behavior
"Robot cockroaches coated with pheromones are so well accepted by the household pests that the robots become part of the insects' collective decision-making process". Full article @ Science
Labels: biomimetics, robots, social agents
Engineering Entropy-Driven Reactions and Networks Catalyzed by DNA
Engineering Entropy-Driven Reactions and Networks Catalyzed by DNA
Artificial biochemical circuits are likely to play as large a role in biological engineering as electrical circuits have played in the engineering of electromechanical devices. Toward that end, nucleic acids provide a designable substrate for the regulation of biochemical reactions. However, it has been difficult to incorporate signal amplification components. We introduce a design strategy that allows a specified input oligonucleotide to catalyze the release of a specified output oligonucleotide, which in turn can serve as a catalyst for other reactions. Full article @ Science
Artificial biochemical circuits are likely to play as large a role in biological engineering as electrical circuits have played in the engineering of electromechanical devices. Toward that end, nucleic acids provide a designable substrate for the regulation of biochemical reactions. However, it has been difficult to incorporate signal amplification components. We introduce a design strategy that allows a specified input oligonucleotide to catalyze the release of a specified output oligonucleotide, which in turn can serve as a catalyst for other reactions. Full article @ Science
Labels: complex networks, dna
Is There Progress on Talking Sensibly to Machines?
Several research projects are closing in on ways to allow humans to effectively communicate with machines in natural language. Full article @ Science
Labels: artificial intelligence, cognitive science, natural language
Who's the Queen?
Biologists are finding that in some social insects nature, not nurture, determines whether offspring become workers or royalty. Full article @ Science
Labels: social agents, Swarms
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Slides for lecture 21 online
Lecture 21 - Swarms, Stigmergy and Collective Intelligence
Labels: collective behavior, Particle Swarm Optimization, stigmergy, Swarms
links for lecture 21
Stigmergy
Dynamic Concepts Stigmergy Robots. Paper with rules used.
AntZ Trailer
Ant Colony Optimization Resources
Swarm-bots
Collective Robotic Intelligence Project (CRIP)
Braitenberg (reactive) Vehicles. A simulation of Braitenberg Vehicles from Rolf Pfeifer's group.
IdMind. Leonel Moura's robot art including RAP (Robot Action Painter).
Dynamic Concepts Stigmergy Robots. Paper with rules used.
AntZ Trailer
Ant Colony Optimization Resources
Swarm-bots
Collective Robotic Intelligence Project (CRIP)
Braitenberg (reactive) Vehicles. A simulation of Braitenberg Vehicles from Rolf Pfeifer's group.
IdMind. Leonel Moura's robot art including RAP (Robot Action Painter).
Mathematica Demos
Wolfram has prepared a very nice showcase with visualizations and implementations of several models (many with discrete dynamical systems, of course) in Mathematica.
Labels: computation, dynamical systems, tools
Insect communication/`No entry/' signal in ant foraging : Nature
"Forager ants lay attractive trail pheromones to guide nestmates to food, but the effectiveness of foraging networks might be improved if pheromones could also be used to repel foragers from unrewarding routes". Full article @ Nature
Labels: animal behavior, ants
fish-bots
The world's first autonomous robotic fish are the latest attraction at the London Aquarium. Biologically inspired by the common carp, the new designs can avoid objects and swim around a specially designed tank entirely of their own accord. Full article at BBC News.
Labels: animal behavior, flocking, robots
Bee social activity tied to gene
A gene involved in egg production also helps honeybees exhibit some crucial social behaviors that distinguish them from solitary insects, researchers report in PLoS Biology this week. Full Story @ The Scientist
Labels: social agents, Swarms
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
From Ants to People, an Instinct to Swarm
"By studying army ants — as well as birds, fish, locusts and other swarming animals — Dr. Couzin and his colleagues are starting to discover simple rules that allow swarms to work so well. Those rules allow thousands of relatively simple animals to form a collective brain able to make decisions and move like a single organism." Full Story @ New York Times
Monday, November 12, 2007
slides for lectures 20 online
links for lecture 20
Artificial Ecosystems
Special Issue on Michael Conrad's Work
PolyWorld
Sim Life and Spore (More on Spore).
Collective Behavior
Boids
e-floys
Boids Applet
Art Boids
EPFL Laboratory for Intelligent Systems
Flocking Robots: The Seven Dwarves
Cybots Kit from the University of Reading
Particle Swarm Optimization
Particle Swarm Optimization Paper by Kennedy and Eberhart..
Particle Swarm Optimization Applet. Another one.
Particle Swarm Optimization Visualization Applet.
Termites and Ant Colony Clustering and Sorting
Artificial Termites. Another artificial termine applet.
Mitchel Resnick
termites @ Flake's site
Ant-like task allocation and recruitment in cooperative robots
Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and its previous Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory
Resources
NetLogo
Swarm Simulation Environment
Vectors
Special Issue on Michael Conrad's Work
PolyWorld
Sim Life and Spore (More on Spore).
Collective Behavior
Boids
e-floys
Boids Applet
Art Boids
EPFL Laboratory for Intelligent Systems
Flocking Robots: The Seven Dwarves
Cybots Kit from the University of Reading
Particle Swarm Optimization
Particle Swarm Optimization Paper by Kennedy and Eberhart..
Particle Swarm Optimization Applet. Another one.
Particle Swarm Optimization Visualization Applet.
Termites and Ant Colony Clustering and Sorting
Artificial Termites. Another artificial termine applet.
Mitchel Resnick
termites @ Flake's site
Ant-like task allocation and recruitment in cooperative robots
Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and its previous Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory
Resources
NetLogo
Swarm Simulation Environment
Vectors
Labels: Artificial ecology, boids, collective behavior, flocking, Particle Swarm Optimization, Swarms
Slides for Lectures 19 online
The Thinking Machine
Jeff Hawkins created the Palm Pilot and the Treo. Now he says he’s got the ultimate invention: software that mimics the human brain. Full article @
Wired 15.03
Wired 15.03
Labels: biomimetics, computation
Emotion robots learn from people
"Making robots that interact with people emotionally is the goal of a European project led by British scientists. Feelix Growing is a research project involving six countries, and 25 roboticists, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists:. Full Article @ BBC NEWS | Technology 
The robots exhibit imprinted behaviour - following the 'mother around'
Chips push through nano-barrier
"The next milestone in the relentless pursuit of smaller, higher performance microchips has been unveiled. Chip-maker Intel has announced that it will start manufacturing processors using transistors just 45 nanometres (billionths of a metre) wide". Full Story: BBC NEWS | Technology | Chips push through nano-barrier
Labels: computation
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Circuits and Innate Behaviour
"In recent years, neuroscientists have made great strides in understanding the mechanisms and processes of innate behaviour as well as the circuits (both anatomical and molecular) that mediate them. For instance, a new Nature paper describes a powerful method to uniquely label individual cells within a population, and thereby distinguish adjacent neurons and cellular processes. This genetic labelling of neurons with multiple distinct colours allows for the large-scale analysis of neuronal circuits". Full web feature @ Circuits and Innate Behaviour : Web focus : Nature
links for lecture 18
Simple Symbolic Regression Using Genetic Programming à la John Koza
Truck Demo
Genetic Programming Resources
36 Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic Programming
Truck Demo
Genetic Programming Resources
36 Human-Competitive Results Produced by Genetic Programming
Labels: evolutionary algorithms, evolutionary programming
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Student snags maths prize
The simple 2,3 Turing Machine (a head with only two states and a tape that can use 3 symbols) is shown to be capable of universal computation. Full article @ Nature News
The state of the head (up or down droplet) and the pattern of colour (orange, yellow and white) in a given row depends upon the row above. A simple start can lead to an incredibly complex picture. (Wolfram Institute)
Small-scale technique hits the big time :
Nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry (NIMS), can now be used to identify individual molecules in biological samples, down to the single-cell level. Full article @
Nature News
Nature News
Personalized genomes go mainstream
Commercial personal genome services could help people to understand more about their family medical history. Full article @ Nature News
Monday, October 29, 2007
Links for Lectures 17 and 18
Modeling Evolution
From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life (1999), Tim Taylor's PhD Dissertation. Check his overview of open-ended evolution.
Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
Genetic Algorithm Viewer
Biomorph Viewer
Omnipotence
Biomorph game
Biomorphs with Crossover
Dawkins' Biomorphs
J-Biomorph
Icosystem - The Hunch Engine™
Evolvica
The Golem Project
Illustrating Evolutionary Computation with Mathematica
LifeSpacies. More. Christa Sommerer
From Artificial Evolution to Artificial Life (1999), Tim Taylor's PhD Dissertation. Check his overview of open-ended evolution.
Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
Genetic Algorithm Viewer
Biomorph Viewer
Omnipotence
Biomorph game
Biomorphs with Crossover
Dawkins' Biomorphs
J-Biomorph
Icosystem - The Hunch Engine™
Evolvica
The Golem Project
Illustrating Evolutionary Computation with Mathematica
LifeSpacies. More. Christa Sommerer
Labels: evolutionary algorithms
Artificial Chemistry
Digital World Reveals Architecture of Evolution
"The architecture that pervades biological networks gives them an evolutionary edge by allowing them to evolve to perform new functions more rapidly than an alternative network design, according to computer simulations conducted at the University of Chicago".
Complexity Digest 2006.32: Digital World Reveals Architecture of Evolution.
Complexity Digest 2006.32: Digital World Reveals Architecture of Evolution.
Labels: complex networks, evolution
Re-engineering Humans
We challenged experts across fields to imagine a new way to solve the problems of human aging. Full story @ The Scientist
Labels: biology, synthetic biology
Selfish genes may drive out diseases
"Genetic elements that select for their own survival could establish disease-resistance genes in insect populations." Full article @ The Scientist
Labels: genetics
Slow Down, Multitaskers; Don’t Read in Traffic
Confident multitaskers of the world, could I have your attention? Think you can juggle phone calls, e-mail, instant messages and computer work to get more done in a time-starved world? Read on, preferably shutting out the cacophony of digital devices for a while. Full article @ New York Times
slides for lecture 17 online
Lecture 17 - Evolutionary Algorithms
Special Presentation - Didem Kadihasanoglu: Varela, Maturana and Uribe's Autopoiesis
Special Presentation - Didem Kadihasanoglu: Varela, Maturana and Uribe's Autopoiesis
Labels: evolution, evolutionary algorithms
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
What Can Systems Biology Do for You?
New lecture notes on evolutionary computation
7. Modeling Evolution: Evolutionary Computation
Labels: evolution, evolutionary algorithms, self-organization
Slides for Lecture 14 online
Monday, October 22, 2007
Links for Lecture 16
An implementation of Von Neumann's Self_reproducing Automata
Self-Reproducing Loops: from Langton's to Evoloop. Hiroki Sayama's Website.
Self-reproducing loops
Langton Loop Applet. Applet 2.
Bibliography on Self-replicating automata
Robot Self-replication
Cornell CCSL: Self replication
Self-Reproducing Loops: from Langton's to Evoloop. Hiroki Sayama's Website.
Self-reproducing loops
Langton Loop Applet. Applet 2.
Bibliography on Self-replicating automata
Robot Self-replication
Cornell CCSL: Self replication
Labels: open-ended evolution, self-reproduction
On the right scent
Searching for the source of a smell is hampered by the absence of pervasive local cues that point the searcher in the right direction. A strategy based on maximal information could show the way. Summary at Nature. Also see the Infotaxis Full Paper.
Labels: biomimetics
If Leonardo Had Made Toys
LEONARDO DA VINCI’S 15th-century vision of mechanical flight apparently never included fixed wings assisted by propellers or jet engines. His chief inspiration was birds, reflected in drawings of a flying machine fashioned to stay aloft by flapping its wings. More than 500 years later, WowWee, a robotics and entertainment products company, shares that vision. Next month, it plans to release a mass-produced, functional ornithopter, a device that flies in birdlike fashion — in this case, a radio-controlled toy that mechanically flaps its Mylar wings. Full Story @ New York Times
Labels: biomimetics, robots, toys
New Lecture Notes
6. Von Neumann and Natural Selection (pdf)
Labels: cellular automata, evolution, self-reproduction, Von Neumann
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Slides for Leacture 15 online
Lecture 15 - Cellular Automata and Computation
Special Presentation - Mike Conover: Dorigo et al "Ant Colony Optimization-- Artificial Ants as a Computational Intelligence Technique" Paper
BTW: here is some sample C code to generate 1D CAs---such as rule 110 (there's a project in here!). This page also has code for 2D CA such as the game of life.
Special Presentation - Mike Conover: Dorigo et al "Ant Colony Optimization-- Artificial Ants as a Computational Intelligence Technique" Paper
BTW: here is some sample C code to generate 1D CAs---such as rule 110 (there's a project in here!). This page also has code for 2D CA such as the game of life.
Labels: cellular automata, computation, self-reproduction, Von Neumann
WolframTones: An Experiment in A New Kind of Music
Interesting use of cellular automata to make music. And you can download them as ringtones for your cell! Wolfram has extended cellular automata to every conceivable area...If you want to read his book (I had it autographed :) let me know! Its huge, over 1K pages.
Labels: cellular automata, music
COOPERATION, COLLECTIVES FORMATION AND SPECIALIZATION
Cooperation in spatial evolutionary game theory has revealed various interesting insights into the problem of the evolution and maintenance of cooperative behavior. In social dilemmas, cooperators create and maintain a common resource at some cost to themselves while defectors attempt to exploit the resource without contributing. (...) Here we review recent advances in the dynamics of cooperation... Adv. Complex Sys. Full Article
Labels: Agent-based modeling, cooperation
A twenty-first century science
"If handled appropriately, data about Internet-based communication and interactivity could revolutionize our understanding of collective human behaviour". Full essay @A twenty-first century science : Article : Nature
Labels: computation
Biology's next revolution
"The emerging picture of microbes as gene-swapping collectives demands a revision of such concepts as organism, species and evolution itself.[...] Here we explain why we foresee such a dramatic transformation, and why we believe the molecular reductionism that dominated twentieth-century biology will be superseded by an interdisciplinary approach that embraces collective phenomena." Full article @ Biology's next revolution : Article : Nature
