ABSTRACT
Most of the book presents the topics from a computer science perspective and deals with new computational models and techniques based on ideas derived from biological research. Using these techniques, problems are solved in ways that di¨er from “classical” computer programming, in which programs can usually be described as a linear sequence of instructions. Chapter 2 deals with cellular automata, which are made up of many independently operating cells embedded on a grid, each of which can a¨ect only its neighbors. is resembles a colony of simple organisms (e.g., bacteria) that can present amazingly complex behaviors or even the structure of simple multicellular creatures that contain many cells working together. Chapter 3 deals with evolutionary computation and demonstrates how to solve optimization and search problems by mimicking the natural evolutionary processes whereby organisms adapt to their environment. Chapter 4 presents models of neural networks that attempt to mimic the behavior of the brain. ese systems are capable of learning and generalizing from
examples. Chapter 5 deals with molecular computation, in which computational problems are solved by a set of interacting biological molecules. Finally, Chapter 6 presents brief descriptions of several other topics that are on the cusp between computer science and biology, for example, ideas drawn from animal behavior and from the operation of the immune system.
