The group that last year demonstrated open source software to simulate a nematode has gone on Kickstarter to try and accelerate its OpenWorm project. <\/p>\n
As noted by The Register last May, the nematode is a good subject for simulation, being one of the world's least complex creatures. At that time, the project had got as far as showing five muscle groups of a C. elegans simulation moving in water. <\/p>\n
Their aim is now much more ambitious: to build a complete, open source cloud-hosted WormSim for educators, scientists, supporters and anyone else who's interested. <\/p>\n
The 36 contributors to the code, which is available under the MIT license, have so far got as far as simple crawling (the code is at github here). <\/p>\n
That's a bit less than a complete worm simulation, but the researchers are trying to work from a bottom-up perspective. Rather than programming the known behaviours of a nematode into software, they're trying to create the creature on a cell-by-cell basis, in the hope that behaviours will emerge from the detail of the simulation. <\/p>\n
With two weeks to go, the project has so far raised $US32k of its $US120,000 target. The OpenWorm site is here, and its Kickstarter page is here. <\/p>\n
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