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Botany with Bytes Plants are tiny computers. As they grow, the sprouts are computing from first principles how to be a plant. We’ll see how they do it! This talk uses Ruby and the ‘graphics’ gem to build models of all kinds of plants, from algae blooms to juniper branches. We’ll touch on rewriting systems, formal grammars, and Alan Turing’s contributions to botany. We’ll look at the shapes of euphorbia, artichoke, and oregon grape, and how these come from plants’ love of sunlight and greedy desire for growth. By the end, we'll have a series of great visual metaphors for fundamental computer science concepts! Help us caption & translate this video! http://amara.org/v/HTA1/
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In the talk 'Botany with Bytes' by Lito Nicolai at the LA RubyConf 2015, the intersection of botany and computer science is explored, emphasizing how plants can be likened to small computing systems. The presentation utilizes the Ruby 'graphics' gem to create visual models of various plants, illustrating how they grow and interact with their environment through computational principles. Key points discussed include: - Introduction to the Ruby 'graphics' gem and its capabilities for drawing and modeling. - Explanation of L-systems, a concept developed by botany-inspired mathematician Aristid Lindenmayer, to simulate the growth patterns of plants through simple rewriting rules. - Discussion on various grammar systems in computer science, such as regular expressions, context-free grammars, and recursively enumerable grammars and their relationship with L-systems. - The demonstration of a basic implementation of an L-system to represent the growth of algae using a string manipulation approach, alongside the use of turtle graphics. - A consideration of how these computational models can visualize complex structures, such as branches and leaves, that resemble natural plant formations. - Insights into Alan Turing's contributions to understanding plant growth, particularly his notion of phyllotaxis, and how it can be simulated through L-systems, maintaining specific angles of growth. - The fractal-like nature of plant structures that emerge from simple iterative rules, exemplified by the growth patterns of plants like Euphorbia and Oregon Grape. - Conclusions drawn regarding the complexity of life and plant growth, highlighting that even simple mechanisms can lead to intricate patterns that are observed in natural flora. Overall, the presentation serves to illustrate how computational thinking can provide valuable insights into biological processes, enhancing our understanding of plant behavior while also drawing parallels to fundamental computer science concepts.
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