Student Teacher
View Resource
  • Number of visits 7
  • Number of saves 2
  • 0

Description

Overview:
Swarms of tiny robots have given up their selfish ways and started sharing resources for the greater good. Though this might sound like the plot of a bad summer blockbuster, it is real news. This month, a team of Swiss researchers announced that they've used robots to simulate biological evolution. The simple, mobile robots - each a little larger than a sugar cube - began their lives directionless, meandering aimlessly into walls. But after a few generations of natural selection, their computer programs evolved so that they became efficient foragers, purposefully collecting disks that represent food. None of that is particularly surprising. Scientists have long been able to simulate evolution through computer programs that mimic the processes of genetic inheritance, mutation, recombination, and reproduction. What is noteworthy is that many of these robots eventually evolved to help one another, sacrificing personal success to aid other robots in their group.
Subject:
Biology
Level:
High School, Community College / Lower Division, College / Upper Division
Material Type:
Diagram/Illustration, Reading
Provider:
University of California Museum of Paleontology
Provider Set:
Understanding Evolution
Date Added:
05/01/2011
License:
Some Rights Reserved
Language:
English
Media Format:
Graphics/Photos, Text/HTML

Comments

Reviewers

Standards

No Alignments yet.

Evaluations

No evaluations yet.

Tags (5)