SIGEVOlution - Volume 5 Issue 4

EDITORIAL Editorial G ECCO-2012 deadline is less than three months away (January 13, 2012!). It is time to go back to that incredible idea you had for so long but you did not have time to finalize into a paper yet! You know you do not want to miss the next GECCO! You know we would miss you and you also know that you would miss meeting your friends, attending those exciting presentations, those great tutorials and the funny discussions. And, if it helps, I promise this time I won't sing! This new issue of SIGEVOlution completes the fifth volume and brings you two new exciting articles. The first one, by Jeff Clune and Hod Lipson, presents the algorithm behind EndlessForms.com, their website for the interactive evolution of 3D objects. The scientific purpose of EndlessForms.com is to let researchers explore what complex designs can be produced when evolution is powered by a generative encoding based on developmental biology. Its practical and more fun purpose is to allow people to create unique physical objects easily while seeing artificial evolution in action. And the best part is that the evolved objects can be published and brought to life using 3D printers. Yes, exactly like the ones shown the cover! The second article by Rebecca Schulman, who gave an extraordinary keynote at GECCO-2011, provides a brief overview of her applications in the new field of structural DNA nanotechnology to modularly design nanoscale components that together can be assembled into a system for self-replicating a new form of chemical information, and thus for evolving a new type of chemical sequence. As usual, my due thanks go to the people who made this possible: The cover shows a set of artifacts evolved with the technology behind the EndlessForms.com website and produced using a 3D printer.