README file for programs in self-organization, cellular automata, and others

This set of programs has been written to demonstrate a number of topics in the
field of self-organization, non-linear phenomona and cellular automata.  Most
of these programs will be accompanying a book entitled, Building Biological
Superstructures: Models of Self-Organization, to be published next year by
Princeton University Press.  At the moment, the programs are in various states
of completion.  Some of them are more user-friendly than others, and use a
better, standard Macintosh interface.   If anyone out there would like the
Pascal code for the programs, please contact me.  I would greatly appreciate
anyone's efforts in improving these programs.

The following is a brief description of each program:

Ballistic aggregation:  A demonstration of a dendritic type of pattern
formation that occurs when particles fall and aggregate with one another.
Several parameters of the program can be varied to change the details of the
pattern.

Bifurcation diagram:  Generates the bifurcation diagram for the logistic
equation.

Chaos in Logistic Growth and Cobwebbing:  These 2 programs demonstrate the
chaotic dynamical system of logistic growth:  Y = r(x)(x-1)

Collective Robots:  Demonstrates how individual units (robots) following
simple behavioral rules can produce interesting self-organized patterns of
behavior.

Comb pattern:  An example from my research on honey bees that shows how the
typical pattern of honey, pollen and brood develop on the combs of honey bee
colonies.

Dendroctonus:  Demonstrates a process of self-organized pattern formation in a
population of beetle larvae.

Differential adhesion:  Demonstrates a process of cell-sorting based upon
differential adhesion in a heterogenous population of cells.

Firefly:  Demonstrates how synchronized flashing in fireflies arises as a
self-organized process.

Forest Fire:  A simple cellular automaton model of a contagious process, such
as the spread of a forest fire.

Fractal growth:  A demonstration of diffusion-limited aggregation, a process
in which particles move randomly and aggregate into a cluster of a specific
fractal dimension.

Genetic algorithm:  A very  simple demonstration of a number sorting network,
optimized through the use of a genetic algorithm.

Gravitation:  An initial attempt at a program that models the motion of up to
4 bodies under the influence of gravity.


Hopalong: An implementation of A.K. Dewdney's September 1986 Computer
Recreations column in Scientific American

Henon:  Iterates a set of non-linear equations and plots the Henon attractor.

Lorentz:  Iterates and plots the famous Lorentz equations.

Lyapunov:  An implementation of A.K. Dewdney's  Computer Recreations column in
Leaping into Lyapunov Space  (Scientific American, September 1991)

Pattern CA:  A cellular automaton model of biological pattern formation based
upon lateral inhibition.  The model produces a variety of patterns such as
zebra stripes or a mottled mackerel-like pattern.

Random distributions:  A little quick program that plots a normal
distribution.

Spirals:  A cellular automaton model that appeared in A.K. Dewdney's  Computer
Recreations column  (Scientific American, August 1989)

Traveling Salesman:  A demonstration of an optimization of the traveling
salesman problem using a genetic algorithm.  Briefly, the traveling salesman
problem examines the question of how a person chooses the shortest path among
a set of many destinations.


For questions or comments, please contact me at:

Scott Camazine
Pennsylvania State University
501 ASI Building
University Park,  PA 16802
814-863-1854
SMC14@psu.edu