Re: Gary's biological MicroWorlds

["Gary McCallister" <mccallis@xxxx>]

My first project in Logo was to try and model a mosquitoes behavior asit 
sought out a host for a blood meal. When I started I was really tryingto learn 
Logo and use mosquitoes (an organism I had been doing reserach onfor about 15 
years) as a subject. Later I conceived of the "Logo Life" project (as I now 
call it), which is a series of subprojects exploring various biological 
phenomenon.
In the MosqHunt project I learned about such commands as "towards", 
"touching", "colorunder", "random", etc. A small mosquito (visually a tiny 
black square moves at random. After each move it checks the distance from 
another turtle (a tiny red square) that represents the host. If it is closer, 
the mosquito continues to move at random. If it is further away than 
previously, it moves at random "towards the host. There is also a barrier that 
the mosquito cannot cross, but backs away from, then continues random 
movements. There is a counter that counts the mosquitoes moves until it 
findthe host. When the mosquito is within 10 of the host the program stops. 
The mosquito also draws a path with each move so you can visualize the 
pathway. The host, mosquito and barrier can be moved to any position on the 
screen and the msoquito will still find the host within very few moves 
(fewerthan 50 almost always).
I would like to further refine the projects so that the host moves also. I 
would also like to develop a similar project with StarLogo that uses multiple 
hosts and mosquitoes, but that is another list server. :-)
I am sorry I cannot post this too the web. I am learning many things about 
Logo, but I still do not have a web page or know how to post a project that 
runs to the web. I could post the code if anyone was interested.
I have developed projects on such other topics as: turtles sensing the 
environment, chaotic randomness and patterns that may arise, one turtle 
chasinganother turtle, recursion (many lower animals act recursively), and the 
growth of spirals as they are so prominent in biology.

>>> WendyPetti@xxxx 08/28/01 11:35PM >>>
Gary, could you tell us more about one or more of your "bioLOGOlogy" 
projects=20
(or attach a project to share with us)? They sound fascinating.

Wendy Petti

> I am also working on creating a set of projects that I have used to=20
> explore biological subjects in MicroWorlds. So far I have about 10 or so=20
> projects that explore things like randomness, evolution, sensing the=20
> environment, growth, silicon mosquitoes that can always find their host,=20
etc.=20
> I hope to extend this into a tutorial for my class in Technobiology. I=20
may=20
> call it BioLOGOlogy. :-)


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