The world’s first simulation of a entire life form was conducted by computational biologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently. A one million atom version of the Satellite Tobacco Mosaic Virus was put through the paces in a supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications for a total of 50 nanoseconds before the system ran out of steam. They made some movies of the event, learned a few things about the molecular dynamics of the STMV and achieved a world’s first along the way.
This development foretells a more real artificial reality, and appropriately enough, the road to The City, goes through Champaign, Illinois.
Molecular dynamics simulations of the complete satellite tobacco mosaic virus – Structure, 14:437-449, 2006
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This is impressive. They should let it alone and see if it evolves into new species.
Even better, they should give this thing its own reality show.