It's a wonderful life

It's a wonderful life: Jane Prophet of Westminster University and Gordon Selley of the London Institute display one of the artificial life-forms that will struggle for survival in a simulated world called TechnoSphere.

TechnoSphere's 3D fractal landscape includes forest, hills and plains. From September 1, members of the public will be invited to send designs for new creatures to the project's World-Wide Web site (http://wynkyn.lond-inst.ac.uk). At key moments in its evolution, the researchers say, an artificial life-form will email a postcard to its maker - "a bit like the Christmas cards that people receive on behalf of donkeys they have sponsored in sanctuaries".