Biogenesis imitates the evolutionary processes that take action on unicellular organism populations in nature. It has been tried to create an example of the elemental bacterial processes, simplifying them a lot and presenting them in a visual and comprehensible manner.

Although it is not scientifically exact, regular mechanisms on bacterial evolution and life can be observed and it can be interesting as a didactic approximation to concepts like mutation, evolution or photosynthesis. It is also a good entertainment.

The organisms that will populate this world are not representations of natural unicellular organisms, but an abstraction has been used to be able to look more clearly at their virtual life. These organisms are formed by segments of different colors and lengths.

The organism's segments color and length establish its properties, so that we can know what can an organism do only by looking at it on the screen. Moreover, these segments' configuration is a representation in the world of its genetic code, which its descendants will inherit in an identical form, with the exception of random mutations that can happen in each generation.

Organisms that obtain beneficial mutations will be the most successful ones, on the reproductive point of view, and will create a large number of descendants that will propagate its genes and its mutation in the future. However, those that suffer from a less appropriate mutation will not take a long time to die without being able to extend their species' lives longer than their own lives.

Requirements:

· Java Runtime Environment 1.5 or later

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

· Added import button in the laboratory, to import genetic code files.
· File dialogs now remember last directory.
· File extensions automatically added if not specified.
· New parameter to control corpses decomposition speed.
· Energy to reproduce is now visible from the info toolbar.
· Info toolbar now automatically updates its label when changing locale.
· Mutate every treat (length, degree or color) independently.
· Accelerator keys for pause and save actions.
· Added command line argument to set random seed.
· Show biogenesis icon in all windows.
· Use only one main window.
· New icons by Florian Haag.
· Let's save world when quitting.
· Localized option dialogs.
· Fixed bug: CO2 were consumed when using yellow segments, even if the child couldn't be placed into the world. (thanks to marcodbaa)
· Updated documentation.