Welcome to Fern Seed!

We are working to create educational and research tools to demonstrate and explore plant lifecycles and population genetics using the OpenSimulator 3D Application Server platform.  

Demonstration versions of many of the projects described on this site can be viewed on the Fern Seed plaza in ScienceSim.

Web interface to control virtual plants

Posted Tue, 12/15/2009 - 9:53am by aduffy

Each of the plants in my simulated population contains the same script, whether it is a spore, gametophyte, or sporophyte - the script just enters different states and uses different variables in each lifestage.  This is similar to the way things work in real organisms: each organism has an entire genome, but different subsets of genes are activated or expressed at different times.  It causes challenges in my virtual plants, however, because all of the parameters controlling the life history and genetics of the plants are hard-coded in the script and cannot be changed without recompiling....

SuperComputing 2009 (SC09) Press Release

Posted Sun, 11/22/2009 - 11:05am

Intel CTO highlights Utah State University research: Our Pteridologists aren't like your Pteridologists

In the opening keynote address of the SuperComputing 2009 Conference held November 14-20 in Portland, Oregon, Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner highlighted a project developed by a student at Utah State University. The project, which simulates plant population genetics in a 3-dimensional virtual environment, was created by Aaron Duffy, a doctoral student working with professor Paul Wolf in the Department of Biology. During the address, Duffy participated through a phone link and an avatar within the virtual environment, answering questions and giving an onscreen demonstration of the simulation....

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