Warm-up Exercises
1. Begin by setting up a random screen (on software or alternative [if java works on your browser]) and watching it until it stabilizes. If it doesn’t stabilize after many cycles stop it. Note the different forms you have at the end and their approximate relative frequencies.

2. Play around with the controls, freezing the game, adding and subtracting pixels, changing the speed and resolution, until you have a feel for how to run the software.

3. Clear the screen, set up an R- Pentomino and watch it develop. Freeze it after one minute and note the relative frequency of different forms. Let it go, stop after some more cycles, record, and so on for more cycles.

4. Start again with an R-Pentomino but perturb it, the first time by adding or subtracting a pixel connected to the form before it starts; the next time doing the same but after 2 moves; the next time after 4 moves.... until you've seen all you want to see and made observations which match the principles of development listed below. You will need to begin at slow speed to be able to count the moves and to stop the game after the right one. You may have to choose a different initial form (other than a R-Pentomino) -- keep it simple -- to illustrate some of the principles.

Principles of embryological development
For each principle below make notes to yourself of the circumstances in the Game of Life which you observed that match. Imagine also that changes in the initial conditions correspond to mutations or recombinations and any changes after a run starts correspond to some environmental change, e.g., contact with a teratogen.

1. Local rules, here interactions between neighboring pixels, can lead to integrated, stable morphologies on a large scale. 2. Local rules can lead to order arising out of initial disorder. 3. Mutations or recombinations can sometimes have no effect, sometimes lead to obliteration of morphogenesis, and sometimes lead to novel, stable morphologies. 4. Changes in the environment can sometimes have no effect, sometimes lead to obliteration of morphogenesis, and sometime lead to novel, stable morphologies. 5. The effect of mutations/ recombinations can be quite unpredictable. 6. Perturbations early in development usually have a more severe effect than perturbations later in development. Find an exception in the game. 7. Interactions between cells can produce patterns of cells on a larger scale than the original cells that were interacting. 8. Simple starting shape leads to a range of final shapes (= differentiation during development). 9. Some shapes are way-stations that are obliterated by later developments.