Scientists in the burgeoning field of artificial life have reached a major milestone, creating a computerized system that automatically creates, evolves, improves and finally builds a variety of simple mobile creatures without any significant human intervention.
In a landmark experiment, scientists have broken the cosmic speed limit, causing a light pulse to travel at many times the speed of light--so fast that the peak of the pulse exited a specially prepared test chamber before it even finished entering it.
The same trick an oyster uses to make mother-of-pearl may ultimately enable researchers to ``grow'' ultra-miniaturized computer chips. The electrical pathways would be self-assembled like the delicate whorls of seashells, rather than etched by conventional manufacturing techniques, and would be only a fraction of the size of the smallest circuit components possible today.