Petri Ecology
How the dish works, and what to try
The dish holds thousands of particles of seven kinds: xenobots, three kinds of anthrobot (circlers, straight-line movers and wigglers), neurobots, food and debris. Each kind swims in its own way, and each pulls toward or pushes away from the others by a fixed amount. Those few numbers are all there is, yet they produce chasing, swarming, rafts and cell-like clusters.
The interaction table holds those numbers. Each row reacts to each column: green means the row’s kind is drawn toward the column’s, red that it is pushed away. The table needn’t be symmetric, so one kind can chase another that flees it. Hover over a cell to highlight the two kinds it connects, and drag it up or down to change it.
The controls. The presets are communities with a sentence each on what to watch. Under Species, each row sets how common a kind is, how it swims (passive, straight, circling, wiggling or looping) and how fast. Randomize fills the table with new values, Mutate nudges every value a little, and Reset positions scatters everything again. Population sets the number of particles, Trails how long they leave a trace, and “Low Reynolds number” stops particles coasting, as real microswimmers can’t.
Things to try. In the cleanup crew, find the debris row and turn its pull toward xenobots negative: the sweeping stops. In Comets nothing swims at all, yet one-sided attraction sets clusters moving. Press Randomize a few times to see how varied the worlds are, then Mutate one you like. Toggle the low Reynolds number setting and watch how motion changes when nothing can coast.
Debris sticks to xenobots and circling anthrobots as they swim past, so they sweep it up and drag it along.
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Interactions
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Row reacts to column: green attracts, red repels. Drag a cell up or down, or use the arrow keys.
Species
Each row: abundance, how it swims, and swimming speed.
The science
Particle Life is classic artificial life simulation. Several species of particles each attract or repel the others by fixed amounts, and those few numbers produce chasing, swarming and cell-like structures. Here the species are modeled on real biological robots: xenobots, anthrobots that move in circles, straight lines or wiggles, and neurobots, plus food and debris.
The swimming styles come from real biobots. Anthrobots fall into circlers, straight-line movers and wigglers, depending on their shape and where their cilia are. Neurobots, xenobots with added nerve cells, have been seen tracing looping, spirograph-like paths. Hover over a cell in the interaction table to highlight the two species it connects.
Real biobots mostly interact physically, through contact and fluid flow, not by attracting each other at a distance. Treat each table value as a stand-in for something a lab can measure, such as how strongly two kinds of cells stick together or move toward a chemical signal. The design question is which combinations of behaviors would make a useful community in a dish, for example one that clears debris.
What’s real
- Anthrobots assemble themselves from adult human airway cells and move as circlers, straight movers or wigglers.
- Neurobots, xenobots with added nerve cells, move in more complex, looping patterns.
- Swarms of ciliated xenobots can gather loose particles into piles.
What’s simplified
- Species attract and repel at a distance; real biobots mostly interact through contact and fluid flow.
- The interaction values are invented to make interesting communities, not measured.
- Food and debris are passive dots that drift a little.