For the past couple of weeks, we've been looking at password puzzles as models for evolutionary biology. This week I said we would stay with language as an inspiration for models but try to widen the scope. As it turns out, the programming didn't go exactly as I had intended. I still have some variations for us to look at, but they aren't as big of a departure. Still, one of my goals for this series was to give you a glimpse of science in real-time, and having to adjust plans based on what is possible is all part of how … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Pick a Word, Any Word
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Science Corner: Where Did the Capuchins Get the Smith Coronas Anyway?
Last week we had a chance to try some password puzzles. All of them involved different variations of exploration and feedback. Some of the variations made the challenge harder than others; hopefully if you had a chance to play that became apparent. I wanted to help build some intuition for how widely the difficulty can vary. We can also think of these as possible models for the challenge posed to evolution at the molecular level. So the question is which if any of these models fits best, and do any of them fit well? … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Where Did the Capuchins Get the Smith Coronas Anyway?
Science Corner: My Genome is my Passport. Verify Me.
Last week we took up the topic of where biological information comes from, using some illustrations from experiments in the Quandary Den. If you missed an earlier series, the Quandary Den simulates features of dungeon crawlers or escape rooms. A common feature of escape rooms is a code/password/combination lock puzzle. A password is a pretty straightforward piece of information, so perhaps that's a good place to try some more hands-on intuition building. We'll try a few different ways to "crack" a password, all of which … [Read more...] about Science Corner: My Genome is my Passport. Verify Me.
Science Corner: Evolving A Bit
While I assemble responses to the most pressing science & faith questions, I'd like to return to our exploration of evolution, starting with one of the evidently less pressing question. Previously, I introduced you to the Quandary Den, a simulation of a simple game that I paired with an evolutionary algorithm. The goal was to give you some hands-on experience with evolution and the use of simulation in experiments--and hopefully have some fun too. As I was working through responding to the eliminated science & faith … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Evolving A Bit
Science Corner: Unstuck in Neutral
Previously in the Quandary Den, I gave you a chance to do some evolutionary artificial life experiments for yourself. I hope you got an opportunity to at least run a couple of different rounds with the simulation. As I mentioned last week, I think simulations like this are a good way to gain experience and build intuition for phenomena we can't otherwise engage with in daily life. Few of us get to do evolutionary biology in the lab or the field, and some experiments are not possible for anyone due to pragmatic or … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Unstuck in Neutral