Hi, Adrian,
Have the self-replicating machines of the great Prof
Penrose fallen out of folk memory, or are they much-quoted
classics? They were made of plywood, and he supplied the
necessary energy by shaking them in a tray. I remember him
demonstrating them to delighted audiences when I was an
undergraduate in the late 1950s. He was then Professor of
Eugenics (!) at UCL, in the School of Biometry, Genetics
and Eugenics headed by JBS Haldane. He did a Scientific
American article on them, probably about 1960; I don't have
the reference handy.
Robin
On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:08:55 +0000 Adrian Bowyer
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Interest in our project to make a self-replicating machine is growing (see
> http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ensab/replicator/). After discussions with Julian, I
> have put an entry on that website to direct people who want to talk about the
> project to our list. If traffic gets too heavy (I should be so lucky...), then
> we might bud it off to another list, depending on how people feel.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Adrian
>
> http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensab
----------------------
Dr R.J.Wootton
University Honorary Fellow (Insect Biomechanics) ics)
University of Exeter
School of Biosciences
Hatherly Laboratories
Prince of Wales Road
Exeter EX4 4PS, UK
01392 275332 or 263753
FX 01392 263700
http://www.ex.ac.uk/biology/wootton
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