CONDENSED MATTER AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS SECTION - SPECIAL SEMINAR: "Learning from Bacteria about Information Processing"

[statphys]

CONDENSED MATTER AND STATISTICAL PHYSICS SECTION

SPECIAL SEMINAR

Monday, 25 May 2009   -    16:30 hrs

Seminar Room
ICTP Leonardo Building - 1st floor

Prof. Eshel BEN-JACOB
(Tel Aviv University)

"Learning from Bacteria
about Information Processing"

Abstract
Bacteria, the first and most fundamental of all organisms, lead rich 
social life in complex hierarchical communities. Collectively, they 
gather information from the environment, learn from past experience, and 
take decisions. Bacteria do not store genetically all the information 
required for efficient responding to all possible environmental 
conditions. To solve the new encountered problems (challenges) posed by 
the environment, they first asses the problem via collective sensing, 
recall stored information of past experience and then execute 
distributed information processing by the 109-12 bacteria using 
sophisticated communication strategies to link the intracellular 
computation networks of each bacterium (including signaling path ways of 
billions of molecules) into a network of networks. I will show 
illuminating movies of swarming intelligence of live bacteria in which 
they solve optimization problems that are beyond what we, human being, 
can solve with our most powerful computers. This will lead me to a 
discussion about the special nature of bacteria computational principles.