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I am an evolutionary biologist specializing in genome size evolution at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Be sure to visit Evolver Zone
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Full Bio
The current issue of Science features a new installment of "The Gonzo Scientist" by writer John Bohannon. This edition is all about Spore, the game that is based on "evolution" from primordial ooze to interstellar society [
Flunking Spore]. I had heard about the game on blogs, but I had not really planned to play it until John asked a few of us to give our perspective on the science behind it.
I can't say I didn't have fun with this, although it is a shame that the game bears little relation to actual evolution (see
here for apparent claims otherwise).
Here's the creature Niles Eldredge and I came up with, dubbed Punky Quillibra:
You can read our review at the
wiki that John made.
Nonetheless, I have my creation and he waits patiently for me to give him instructions to go into space so we can conquer the universe, so I have retrieved him from my unfinished draft "Everything I need to know about Biology I learned from playing Spore." It contains bits of wisdom like ...
You can start off as a cell eating meat or vegetables. I didn't really see that as a choice. All I read was 'food' and then 'stuff that food eats in order to become bigger food'. So I chose carnivore.
and
ME: I just had some sort of coupling ritual with another amino acid. Are you jealous?
WIFE: Are you trying to lose 50% of your assets?
The article is a lot better than the game.