Answers.Body: <p>There are many examples of biological systems doing computation, according to my understanding:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Regulatory networks encode decision trees of significant complexity: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_regulatory_network" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wikipedia</a>.</li>
  <li>Alan Turing did significant work on organismal morphogenesis showing how simple chemical patterns of inducers can lead to complex outcomes, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphogenesis" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Turing patterns</a>".</li>
  <li>All of organismal development, cell division, etc. are tightly regulated procedures of gene regulation and morphogenesis.</li>
  <li>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network" rel="nofollow noreferrer">inspiration for neural networks is brains</a>. </li>
  </ol>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2020-06-16T18:40:13.707Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-06-16T18:40:13.707Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Maximilian Press
Body: <p>I am looking for examples of (known) algorithms/data structures in biological systems. My current understanding is that these don't exist - or haven't been found - beyond a relatively low level of complexity, which would seem like strong evidence to me that evolution isn't able to come up with something as complicated (and multi-step) as, e.g., the Schönhage-Strassen algorithm.</p>
  
  <p>I heard of Bloom filters for recognizing smells in fruit flies (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304992/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304992/</a>).</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-06-16T18:34:44.257Z
Comments.Text: It would be helpful to know more about what you mean by "algorithms" or "data structures". Organismal morphogenesis could be looked at as an incredibly complex set of linked algorithms- people call it a "developmental program".
Comments.UserDisplayName: Maximilian Press
Tags: <microbiology><systems-biology>
Title: Sophisticated algorithms in biological systems
ThreadText: # Sophisticated algorithms in biological systems
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-16)
  
  I am looking for examples of (known) algorithms/data structures in biological systems. My current understanding is that these don't exist - or haven't been found - beyond a relatively low level of complexity, which would seem like strong evidence to me that evolution isn't able to come up with something as complicated (and multi-step) as, e.g., the Schönhage-Strassen algorithm.
  
  I heard of Bloom filters for recognizing smells in fruit flies (<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6304992/>).
  
  **Tags:** microbiology, systems-biology
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: It would be helpful to know more about what you mean by "algorithms" or "data structures". Organismal morphogenesis could be looked at as an incredibly complex set of linked algorithms- people call it a "developmental program".  
  
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  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2020-06-16. Score: 2
  
  There are many examples of biological systems doing computation, according to my understanding:
  
  1. Regulatory networks encode decision trees of significant complexity: [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_regulatory_network).
  2. Alan Turing did significant work on organismal morphogenesis showing how simple chemical patterns of inducers can lead to complex outcomes, "[Turing patterns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphogenesis)".
  3. All of organismal development, cell division, etc. are tightly regulated procedures of gene regulation and morphogenesis.
  4. The [inspiration for neural networks is brains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network).
  
  
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