Spotlight #3 — Biology & Life Sciences

Life generates complex, beautiful patterns from simple rules. Twelve simulations across the Life, Genetics, and Molecular Biology categories show how — from 500 flocking birds to protein folding at the atomic scale.

12
simulations
3
sub-categories
8
algorithms

Biology is the most algorithm-rich science. Every biological process — flocking, foraging, evolution, molecular recognition — has been modelled computationally, and those models make excellent browser simulations because they're inherently visual and inherently interesting to non-specialists.

The Life Category — Emergent Behaviour

These simulations show how macro behaviour (a flock, a plague, a pattern) emerges from micro rules (each bird, each infected person, each cell).

The Genetics Category — Evolution

Three simulations model heredity, selection, and evolutionary dynamics.

Molecular Biology — Cells & Proteins

The Algorithms Behind Life

The biology category collectively uses more algorithms than any other category on the site:

Reynolds Boids ACO (Ant Colony) Conway's CA SIR/SEIR Model Lotka-Volterra Gray-Scott Simulated Annealing Metropolis Criterion Evolutionary Game Theory Brownian Motion

Recommended learning path: Game of Life → Boids → Reaction- Diffusion → Epidemic SIR → Natural Selection. Each step adds a layer of complexity: discrete → continuous agents → chemistry → network effects → evolutionary dynamics.