Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 2.2
The development of a simple four-cell starting arrangement in the Game of Life. This particular
arrangement ends in an oscillating pattern rather than a stable state.
the power of simple, local processes to create highly complex behaviour. The rules, for
example, say nothing about the translocation of anything across the field, yet with the correct
starting conditions, the 'glider' in
Figure 2.3
moves steadily and forever (or at least until it
reaches a boundary or another group of cells). These observations, which can be made by
anyone willing to play for even a fewminutes, provide both hope and warning to researchers
who study the development of form in real biological systems. The hope is that, in real
biology as in the Game of Life, the rich variety of shapes may result from mechanisms
they are simple enough to understand. The warning is that underlying mechanisms may
have a structure completely different from that of their result, and identifying these mech-
anisms therefore requires both persistence and imagination.
FIGURE 2.3
A 'glider': the arrangement of five cells appears again, four ticks later, displaced one location up
and one location to the right (for this orientation of the glider). In the figure, the asterisk '*' marks the same location
in the first and last diagrams to emphasize the displacement of the glider pattern.
