First Computer Simulation of a Life-Form
The world’s first simulation of a entire life form was conducted by computational biologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign recently. A one million atom version of the Satellite Tobacco Mosaic Virus was put through the paces in a supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications for a total of 50 nanoseconds before the system ran out of steam. They made some movies of the event, learned a few things about the molecular dynamics of the STMV and achieved a world’s first along the way.
This development foretells a more real artificial reality, and appropriately enough, the road to The City, goes through Champaign, Illinois.
Molecular dynamics simulations of the complete satellite tobacco mosaic virus - Structure, 14:437-449, 2006
