R code.

Today in Population Ecology we were exploring spatial population models in the statistical programme R. I must admit modelling is not an interest of mine but the practicals have generally been good and rather rewarding. After constructing a spatially implicit deterministic Levin's model before adding stochasticity to it and turning it into a spatially explicit model - in particular Conway's "Game of Life".

Conway's "Game of Life" is essentially a lattice matrix where cells are either DEAD or ALIVE and they must conform to the following two rules:
1. If a DEAD cell has three neighbours then it becomes ALIVE.
2. If an ALIVE cell has two or three neighbours it remains ALIVE. If not, it becomes DEAD.

After typing up some R code into the programme interface we set them to run. You could watch the function visualise as it progressed through the loops of generations. As it progressed it began to transform into "Christmassy" pictures. Although I think it may meant to have resembled a snowflake I feel it looks more like a pattern on a jumper your nannie might have knitted you.

Who says statistics can't be fun?