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FRAGMENT FROM NATURE for this and next weekend considers why there are typically two or more sexes in organisms, and looks at how varied nature is in this regard. The fundings may be rather surprising, but nature has a theme of constant experimentation with diverse modes of being, and this is no exception. View in LinkedIn

Early morning bee. View in LinkedIn

SIMPLE ORGANISM, COMPLEX BEAST. "Consider this sobering lesson: the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans is a tiny creature whose brain has 302 nerve cells. Back in 1986, scientists used electron microscopy to painstakingly map its roughly 6000 chemical synapses and its complete wiring diagram. Yet more than two decades later, there is still no working model of how this minimal nervous system functions." https://lnkd.in/dUt32Gf View in LinkedIn

OPEN WORM PROJECT. "The open source project recently had its first major breakthrough when its software -- modeled on the neurons of the worm's nervous system -- independently controlled a Lego robot. The machine's sensors, without any prior programming, made the robot behave in a similar fashion to C. elegans, approaching and backing away from obstacles or stimulated by food." https://lnkd.in/dfAzF4Z View in LinkedIn

C. ELEGANS, the OpenWorm subject. “The connectome of this complex/simp,e creature has been mapped. That has been simulated and transmitted to code, which has been used to drive a robot.” https://lnkd.in/d3p9Grs View in LinkedIn

THE LOGIC. “There exists also a limited domain in parameter space (in which costs to mate finding are moderate), in which collapse from four mating-types to three is possible, but the collapse from three to two is not. If costs to not finding a mate are high then it is expected that gametic fusion should be abandoned for a system in which nuclei are exchanged but cytoplasm is not.” http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/263/1369/415.short View in LinkedIn