Computer simulation of biological phenomena is an important and growing part of biological research, but students in the life sciences often shy away from using math and computer science as tools to study biology.
The goal of Simulation in Biology is to show you how useful simulation is in understanding biology, and to convince you that anyone can learn to do it!
We use the graphic programming language StarLogo The Next Generation (SLTNG) to design, construct, and evaluate your own simulations of biological phenomena using autonomous agents. SLTNG allows you to simulate many aspects of biology—agents may be chosen to represent molecules, cells, or organisms—and the model scenario could be virtually anything, including enzyme kinetics, cells growing in culture, cells interacting in an organism, or organisms interacting with each other and their environment.
The goal of Simulation in Biology is to show you how useful simulation is in understanding biology, and to convince you that anyone can learn to do it!
We use the graphic programming language StarLogo The Next Generation (SLTNG) to design, construct, and evaluate your own simulations of biological phenomena using autonomous agents. SLTNG allows you to simulate many aspects of biology—agents may be chosen to represent molecules, cells, or organisms—and the model scenario could be virtually anything, including enzyme kinetics, cells growing in culture, cells interacting in an organism, or organisms interacting with each other and their environment.