Today's featured article
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The grandfather problem is the following question, posed by John Conway in 1972 in Lifeline Volume 6:
- Is there a configuration which has a father but no grandfather?
Conway offered a $50 cash prize to "the first person to settle the grandfather problem either way". But the problem remained open until May 2016, when mtve presented such a pattern -- and, soon after that, a pattern with a grandfather but no great-grandfather, and another pattern with a great-grandfather but no great-great-grandfather. On January 6, 2022, Ilkka Törmä and Ville Salo solved a generalized version of the grandfather problem, proving that for every natural number n, there exists a pattern that has an n-tick predecessor but not an (n+1)-tick predecessor.
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In the news
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- January 8: Frank Everdij discovers tarantula, a c/5 orthogonal spaceship which, in terms of its minimum population of 58 cells, is tied with spider as the smallest known spaceship of this speed.
- December 31: blah posts a complete package containing a 32-bit computer implemented in Conway's Life -- the "323" -- along with an assembler script, example programs, extensive HTML documentation and an MP4 introductory video. (!)
- December 30-31: Goldtiger997 constructs an activation step for a synthesis of the c/5 orthogonal spaceship Kermit. vilc completes a 343-glider synthesis through a collaborative effort with several other users.
- December 27: Gustone completes the leaf bug, a record-breaking new self-supporting 31c/240 spaceship with a smaller population (though larger bounding box) than the previous record-holding self-supporting spaceship (the waterbear).
- December 23: Rei posts an APGsembly program that calculates and displays in the Life universe a plot of the Mandelbrot set.
- December 18-23: Tim Coe reduces the size of the smallest sawtooth-based diehard from 53×53 to 49×49, reduced again several days later to 47×47 by b3s23love; the resulting diehard's lifespan is much smaller than the 53×53 diehard's lifespan of 1826659985823844806 ticks -- i.e., the new lifespan of 1237975907532 ticks is only a record for the new reduced bounding box size.
- December 18: confocaloid constructs a racetrack oscillator showcasing a diagonal 5c/26 biblock wire; the wire is supported by an extensible p4 sparker found by Keith Amling in July.
- December 14: A significantly improved compiler and emulator package for APGsembly version 2 is posted by new contributor branoc, with new optimized arithmetic components, sample code and documentation.
- December 11: Matthias Merzenich completes a very high-clearance period-7 middleweight sparker based on a partial result by hotcrystal0.
- December 5: Matthias Merzenich completes the first true period-35 glider gun based on a partial result by iNoMed and hotcrystal0.
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Did you know...
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- ... that although the first trivial p34 oscillator was found in 1997, the first non-trivial example and second non-trivial example were only found 25 years later?
- ... that even objects as rare as the mango, long boat, and eater 1 can be transparent?
- ... that a pattern can be constructed with the property that every cell in the universe (as opposed to all but finitely many cells) is alive at some point in the pattern's evolution but eventually turns dead permanently?
- ... that if a glider collides with a U-turner in a certain way, the ash will contain a 15-bit still life with apgcode xs15_6t1egoz11?
- ...that the smallest c/4 diagonal spaceship that does not contain any gliders (including temporary gliders) is more than 13 times larger than the glider?
- ...that no spaceships have been found that work in both Life (B3/S23) and Grounded Life (B35/S23), despite the fact that these rules are only one outer-totalistic transition apart?
- ... that there are at least five distinct patterns which can be referred to using the word 'wing', namely Wing, Wing (spaceship), Wings, Flying wing and any thin component that protrudes from a spaceship in a direction not parallel to the direction of travel?
- ... that there are four unrelated SKOPs for p7 with a population of 28: Burloaferimeter, 28P7.1, 28P7.2 and 28P7.3?
- ... that 84P199 is the current largest prime-period oscillator that is engine-based?
- ... that seven spaceships have been proved to be the smallest possible for their speed and period: glider for period-4 c/4 diagonal, LWSS for period-4 c/2 orthogonal, 64P2H1V0 for period-2 c/2 orthogonal, 30P5H2V0 for period-5 2c/5 orthogonal, 25P3H1V0.1 and 25P3H1V0.2 for period-3 c/3 orthogonal and 37P4H1V0 for period-4 c/4 orthogonal?
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Pattern collection
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| The LifeWiki contains one of the most comprehensive catalogues of patterns available on the internet. Within it you will find:
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