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VIRTUAL CREATURE EVOLUTION is a spooky glimpse into the world of binary code generating artificial virtual genotypes and phenotypes that can be bred and compete among each other on some crude Darwinian principles. View in LinkedIn

NATURAL EVOLUTION, in the results we see today, is replete with the most indescribable biological innovation of both form and function, at all levels, from molecules, to genetic programs, biochemical systems, and to ecosystems. Nature appears to have unlimited creativity, a driving joy for scientists captivated by their beauty and complexity. View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL LIFE MODELS IN SOFTWARE. Evolution is extremely slow, but Artificial Life simulations can carry out evolutionary scenarios in thousands of generations in relatively short time frames, and the results have been very surprising. https://lnkd.in/d-Zcc8a View in LinkedIn

THE QUESTION OF EVOLUTION remains another big challenge in biology that is not easily amenable to experimentation, but may be answered by deductions from the incomplete fossil record, observations of biodiversity today, and by artificial life experiments. View in LinkedIn

CONSCIOUSNESS. "We believe that if artificial life is to possess consciousness, it must be something that is based upon evolution rather than a fixed, static algorithm. Limiting artificial life to a fixed algorithm is like making it a slave, by making it incapable of achieving a certain level of thought; this is because an algorithm would either limit the artificial life to a specific kind of task or a specific way of thinking." https://lnkd.in/etiQ6T7 View in LinkedIn

IGNORE TIME. "Why wait another billion years for genome improvement, when you can take evolution into your own hands?" (Karl Sims). https://lnkd.in/dD4T763 View in LinkedIn

MORE VARIANT CASES. “In nuclear genomes, variants are also rare, but as protist genome diversity is explored the number of cases is expanding. One interesting pattern to emerge is that the frequency of different kinds of changes in nuclear genomes is different from those of mitochondria and bacteria (the most obvious being the prevalence of UAR=Q versus UGA=W, respectively). Once again, this likely reflects a fundamental difference in their genomes, in this case the underlying translation systems (amino acyl tRNA syntheses and termination factors).” https://lnkd.in/d87ZWbH View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this two weekend contemplation on the genetic code. Once again, the influence of microbial horizontal gene transfer has contributed to the conservation of the genetic code in unrelated living cells. It seems very likely other variant codes will be discovered. Whether there are creatures that can reproduce with hugely different genetic structures awaits to be seen, but is very relevant to the search for new life both on earth, and elsewhere. View in LinkedIn

NEW CELLULAR DNA. “Australian researchers have identified a new DNA structure -- called the i-motif -- inside cells. A twisted 'knot' of DNA, the i-motif has never before been directly seen inside living cells. The new shape looks entirely different to the double-stranded DNA double helix. We think the coming and going of the i-motifs is a clue to what they do. It seems likely that they are there to help switch genes on or off, and to affect whether a gene is actively read or not." https://lnkd.in/dC4Eqkg View in LinkedIn

CONSERVING FORCES. “Conceivably, frozen accident and the requirement of horizontal gene transfer were major, complementary factors that have kept the code universal.” https://lnkd.in/dKTqJpY View in LinkedIn