Google

Category
 
Recent Entries
 
Archives
 
Links
 
Visitors

You have 2325514 hits.

 
Latest Comments


  
Archives
You are currently viewing archive for June 2008
June 16, 2008 5:01 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
In 2003 I was invited to give a keynote talk at Ars Electronica. The theme that year was "Code:The Language of our Time" and I discovered to my surprise that the talk was printed up and published with me listed as an author:

http://www.amazon.com/Ars-Electronica-2003-Code-Language/dp/3775713565

I forget how coherent I was in the talk, but while I was there I was interviewed for Austrian radio. Listening again some five years later I'm pleased to say I still agree with myself, although I'm slightly dismayed that all the research I describe in the EDBC, CES and OGFC books has not progessed us much further in this area. You can listen for yourself by clicking here.

Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: On Growth Form and Computers, Creative Evolutionary Systems, Evolutionary Design by Computers, TV Radio and public talks
 
June 16, 2008 4:41 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
I was asked to write the Book of Numbers by Cassell Illustrated, who wanted to publish something a little more serious while still making it pretty to look at and fun to read. I hope you'll agree they did a lovely job... but unfortunately a few errors in formatting and editing did creep in. Many of the readers who send me emails do delight in pointing out the errors, but I have found most of them now (I hope!). You can download a printable list of corrections here:

http://www.peterjbentley.com/amendments.pdf

One advantage is that they provide a good test for you, my reader: if you can find the mistakes yourself it shows you're reading and understanding all the tricky parts in the boxes extremely well!

Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: The Book of Numbers
 
June 16, 2008 4:23 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
One advantage of writing popular science is that I get asked to do some fun things. On 8 June 2007 I was one of the speakers in the "You, Robot?" debate in Cheltenham Town Hall, at the Cheltenham Science Festival (with Lola Cañamero and chaired by Mark Miodownik). The title was me tipping my hat to Asimov, of course. In addition to sharing a VIP room with all kinds of famous "TV scientists" which was fun, UCL decided they would stick my image on the homepage for the entire university for a few weeks. Yikes!

Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: The Undercover Scientist (Why Sh*t Happens), The Book of Numbers, Digital Biology, TV Radio and public talks
 
June 16, 2008 4:11 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
At the end of 2004 Robyn Williams of ABC National Radio came to my lab to talk about our research for a radio-based science magazine show. I described (and demonstrated) one of our little bug robots walking around and explained how its brain had been evolved rather than designed by a person. (The specific research behind this process is described in the first chapter of On Growth, Form and Computers for those with an interest in all the techie details.)

Later I was given the link to the transcript of the interview: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s1292193.htm

It's one of those occasions when I wished they'd done a little light editing on my words - it's amazing how ungrammatical and repetitive we can be in normal speech, and how clumsy it looks when written down verbatim. Hopefully my words sounded better on the actual radio show.

Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: On Growth Form and Computers, TV Radio and public talks
 
June 16, 2008 3:56 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
During the publicity tour for the US version of Digital Biology I had a 60-minute live interview on the David Brudnoy Show, WBZAM, Boston, USA, 16 July 2002. He was a lovely guy and it was a great pleasure to chat to him (and the telephone callers). I was greatly saddened to hear of his death just two years later. You can find out more about David here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brudnoy
Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: Digital Biology, TV Radio and public talks
 
June 16, 2008 3:49 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
Some years after I published my first book, Evolutionary Design by Computers someone told me that it was referenced in the back of the best-selling novel “Prey” by Michael Crichton. By a strange co-incidence, one of my PhD students has performed her PhD on the use of swarm intelligence to control nanorobots (in simulation), which is pretty much the subject of Michael's book.
Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: Evolutionary Design by Computers
 
June 16, 2008 3:08 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
In 2000 I helped to make a BBC radio documentary that described how researchers such as myself were combining ideas from biology with computer science. The producer of the piece thought our research was exciting and suggested I write a book. Digital Biology was the result. You can listen to the radio documentary "Natural Technology" broadcast May 2001, by clicking here.

Although I'd written a few academic books before, Digital Biology was my first venture into popular science so I was very pleased when it became successful in several countries.

Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: Digital Biology, TV Radio and public talks
 
June 16, 2008 1:45 PM
Posted By Peter Bentley
I frequently receive emails and letters from the readers of my books. These Internet pages provide a way for me to interact with you, my reader, a little more. They enable me to provide details of happenings that relate to each book, and allow readers to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions.

If you are interested in my research activities at UCL or elsewhere, please go to the UCL webpages. If you want to see more details of the books, please go to the book webpages. If you have a private query, drop me an email. And finally, if you post anything unpleasant, unkind or unlawful I reserve the right to remove your comment.

Permalink     Comments (0)

Categories: Confused? Read this.