Breakthrough in real life virtualization in the virtual world

Scientists have initially made a round-the-clock copy of the computer, which can be bent as it is in the real world and opens the door to real-life research and management by reproducing the simulation in the virtual world.

Researchers at the Open Worm project have made this important breakthrough, after using computer code to create "virtual" nematode muscles.

The Open Worm project was launched in May, with the goal of creating a virtual copy of a roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. In the real world, the C. elegans round worm is only about 1mm long, transparent and eating bacteria, such as E. coli. They move around in water at about 1mm per second.

Virtual worms can bend like the original in real life

Despite the fact that the body is composed of only 1,000 cells, C. elegans has relatively developed behavior, such as finding partners and avoiding predators. Thus, the worm has become the target of countless scientific studies and is the first multicellular organism to be decoded whole genome.

In the Open Worm project, researchers focused on creating a detailed and realistic copy of the C. elegans worm. All 1,000 as well as the nerve connections between them of the virtual worms were constructed in a simulated environment called Geppetto. The pseudocode that controls how the virtual creature's muscles move has been corrected by the research team for bending and its speed is similar to that of a living copy.

John Hurliman, who led the project, claims that virtual worms are now moving about as close to what we know about the real C. elegans swimming. The next step, the team is expected to mimic the mechanism of action of the nerve fibers to cause the muscle tissue of the worm to twitch.

All code, data, and models created in the OpenWorm project are publicly available under the open source license of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US). The authors claim that their model may eventually prove inaccurate, but may be "helpful . " It is opening up the prospect of copying other real life forms into virtual worlds for research and other purposes.