Biological Computation

Biological Computation

by Ehud Lamm, Ron Unger
Released May 2011
Publisher(s): Chapman and Hall/CRC
ISBN: 9781420087963

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

The area of biologically inspired computing, or biological computation, involves the development of new, biologically based techniques for solving difficult computational problems. A unified overview of computer science ideas inspired by biology, Biological Computation presents the most fundamental and significant concepts in this area. In the book, students discover that bacteria communicate, that DNA can be used for performing computations, how evolution solves optimization problems, that the way ants organize their nests can be applied to solve clustering problems, and what the human immune system can teach us about protecting computer networks. The authors discuss more biological examples such as these, along with the computational techniques developed from these scenarios.

The text focuses on cellular automata, evolutionary computation, neural networks, and molecular computation. Each chapter explores the biological background, describes the computational techniques, gives examples of applications, discusses possible variants of the techniques, and includes exercises and solutions. The authors use the examples and exercises to illustrate key ideas and techniques.

Clearly conveying the essence of the major computational approaches in the field, this book brings students to the point where they can either produce a working implementation of the techniques or effectively use one of the many available implementations. Moreover, the techniques discussed reflect fundamental principles that can be applied beyond bio-inspired computing. Supplementary material is available on Dr. Unger's website.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover (1/2)
  2. Front Cover (2/2)
  3. Table of Contents (1/2)
  4. Table of Contents (2/2)
  5. Preface (1/2)
  6. Preface (2/2)
  7. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (1/8)
  8. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (2/8)
  9. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (3/8)
  10. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (4/8)
  11. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (5/8)
  12. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (6/8)
  13. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (7/8)
  14. Chapter 1: Introduction and Biological Background (8/8)
  15. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (1/10)
  16. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (2/10)
  17. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (3/10)
  18. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (4/10)
  19. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (5/10)
  20. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (6/10)
  21. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (7/10)
  22. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (8/10)
  23. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (9/10)
  24. Chapter 2: Cellular Automata (10/10)
  25. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (1/12)
  26. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (2/12)
  27. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (3/12)
  28. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (4/12)
  29. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (5/12)
  30. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (6/12)
  31. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (7/12)
  32. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (8/12)
  33. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (9/12)
  34. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (10/12)
  35. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (11/12)
  36. Chapter 3: Evolutionary Computation (12/12)
  37. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (1/15)
  38. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (2/15)
  39. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (3/15)
  40. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (4/15)
  41. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (5/15)
  42. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (6/15)
  43. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (7/15)
  44. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (8/15)
  45. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (9/15)
  46. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (10/15)
  47. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (11/15)
  48. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (12/15)
  49. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (13/15)
  50. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (14/15)
  51. Chapter 4: Artificial Neural Networks (15/15)
  52. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (1/9)
  53. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (2/9)
  54. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (3/9)
  55. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (4/9)
  56. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (5/9)
  57. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (6/9)
  58. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (7/9)
  59. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (8/9)
  60. Chapter 5: Molecular Computation (9/9)
  61. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (1/11)
  62. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (2/11)
  63. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (3/11)
  64. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (4/11)
  65. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (5/11)
  66. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (6/11)
  67. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (7/11)
  68. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (8/11)
  69. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (9/11)
  70. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (10/11)
  71. Chapter 6: The Never-Ending Story : Additional Topics at the Interface between Biology and Computation (11/11)
  72. Back Cover

Product information

  • Title: Biological Computation
  • Author(s): Ehud Lamm, Ron Unger
  • Release date: May 2011
  • Publisher(s): Chapman and Hall/CRC
  • ISBN: 9781420087963