life inspired

"The human brain is exceedingly complex and studying it encompasses gathering information across a range of levels, from molecular processes to behavior. The sheer breadth of this undertaking has perhaps led to an increased specialization of brain research and a concomitant fragmentation of our knowledge. A potential solution is to integrate all of this knowledge into a coherent simulation of the brain". Full article @ Science

Labels: brain, cognitive science, complex systems, simulation

"Before he became America's first de facto science adviser and before he helped lay the foundation for the National Science Foundation, Vannevar Bush was a professor of Electrical Engineering and, eventually, dean of Engineering and vice president at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In those capacities, he came in contact with some of the nation's best and brightest minds in their formative years. But after two decades in such a rarified academic environment, Bush had become disenchanted by the increasing specialization of undergraduate curricula in science and engineering in America (1). He felt that education in these fields placed too much emphasis on information transferral from teacher to student and too little on deep understanding and intellectual synthesis by the student. Bush was among the first to anticipate that massive amounts of information would someday be universally and readily available to all, such that our ability to communicate knowledge through classes would become far less important than our ability to inspire students to do something creative, and valuable, with it." Full article @ Science

Labels: complex systems, cybernetics, education, simulation

"Swarm Chemistry" is the pilot research project run by Hiroki Sayama in the Department of Bioengineering at Binghamton University, as well as the interactive simulation software developed and used for the project.

We study the collective dynamics of heterogeneous self-propelled particle swarms and develop novel methods of decentralized control and interactive design of self-organizing decentralized systems. Swarm agents steer their motion according to a set of simple kinetic rules, similar to those in Craig Reynolds' "Boids". Each agent in our model has its own kinetic parameters that may be different from others, so that we can mix several different types of swarm agents into a single population and see how they kinetically react and form a dynamic pattern.

Labels: Artificial Life, simulation, Swarms

Darwinia is a virtual world populated by artificial evolving creatures. "Darwinia has been overrun by a computer virus which has multiplied out of control. Your task is to destroy the Viral Infection and save the Darwinians from extinction".

Labels: Games, simulation

This Virtual Virus is the first simulation of an entire life form (from LiveScience.com)

Labels: simulation, virus, whole-organism modeling