Science News - February 12, 2011

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Computers learn trick from fruit fly

By Rachel Ehrenberg

Fruit flies have solved a computing problem that has vexed computer scientists for decades. Mimicking how some developing nerve cells in flies pick a leader to make decisions has led to a computer algorithm that could make wireless sensor networks — such as those used to control swarms of robots— more efficient, researchers report in the Jan. 14 Science.

In such smart networks, some sensors act as leaders to alert headquarters if, for example, a certain number of them detect the first rumblings of an active volcano. The new approach achieves the same leader-follower relationships but eliminates a lot of cross talk among sensors, saving energy and computing power.

How fly nerve cells decide to take on different jobs parallels an issue in distributed computing, in which many processors work together toward a common goal with minimal leadership. A handful of processors — typically ones with many neighboring processors— are designated leaders; they receive information from nearby processors and pass it on. Yet fly nerve cells set up their networks without knowing much about their neighbors and still come up with solutions.

As fruit fly larvae develop, some cells
take on particular tasks, such as becom-
ing precursors to the sensory bristles that
the flies use to read the air around them.
Each bristle ends up surrounded by non-
bristle cells. This layout, where there are
enough specialized cells, or leaders, but
no t wo are right next to each other, is very
similar to how tasks are divvied up in dis-
tributed networks, says Ziv Bar-Joseph
of Carnegie Mellon University in Pitts-
burgh, who led the new work.

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