Fruit Flies Inspire Computer Innovation

Friday, 14 January 2011 | by Pat's Picks

Fruit flies are more than just pests says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The tiny insects provided inspiration for a group of Carnegie Mellon scientists looking to revamp the way computer networks operate. Apparently, a fruit fly’s nervous system is “an efficient model for organizing numerous cells to operate in unison to accomplish prescribed tasks.”

Basically the premise is this: fruit fly cells are hardwired to designate a certain number of new cells as “leaders” and the others as followers. Over time, all new cells attach themselves to a leader cell. The Carnegie Mellon team applied this model to wireless computer networks, making a certain number of processors emerge as leaders. Before the group’s research, computers used complex algorithms to determine which processors would become leaders.

Read an abstract of the group’s study, published in the journal Science

(Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org)