What was the first organism like and what did it do?
Click here for details on a fully-funded PhD studentship to work on answering these questions.

JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS

Egbert M. D., Gagnon J-S., Pérez-Mercader J. (2018) Dynamic modulation of external conditions can transform chemistry into logic gates. Journal of The Royal Society Interface, 15(144), 20180169.
Egbert M. D., Pérez-Mercader J. (2018) Methods for Measuring Viability and Evaluating Viability-Indicators. Artificial Life, 24(02), 106–118.
Agmon, E., Egbert, M. D., & Virgo, N. (2018) The Biological Foundations of Enactivism: A report on a workshop held at Artificial Life XV. Artificial Life, 24(1), 49–55.
Egbert M. D., Pérez-Mercader J (2016) Adapting to Adaptations: Behavioural Strategies that are Robust to Mutations and Other Organisational-Transformations. Scientific Reports, 6, 18963.
Egbert M. D., Barandiaran X. E. (2014) Modeling habits as self-sustaining patterns of sensorimotor behavior. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8(590).
Barandiaran X. E., Egbert M. D. (2013) Norm-establishing and norm-following in autonomous agency. Artificial Life. 20(1):5-28.
Egbert M. (2013) Bacterial Chemotaxis: Introverted or Extroverted? A Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Basic Forms of Metabolism-Based and Metabolism-Independent Behavior Using a Computational Model. PLoS ONE. 8(5):e63617.
Ibrahim B., Henze R., Gruenert G., Egbert M. D., Huwald J., Dittrich P. (2013) Spatial rule-based modeling: a method and its application to the human mitotic kinetochore. Cells, 2(3): 506-544..
Egbert M. D. (2013) For Biological Systems, Maintaining Essential Variables Within Viability Limits is Not Passive – Open peer commentary on the target article "Homeostats for the 21st Century? Simulating Ashby Simulating the Brain" by Stefano Franchi. Constructivist Foundations, 9(1):109-111.
Egbert M. D., Barandiaran X. E., Di Paolo E. A. (2012) Behavioral Metabolution: The Adaptive and Evolutionary Potential of Metabolism-Based Chemotaxis. Artificial Life, 18(1):1-25.
Egbert M. D., Barandiaran X. E., Di Paolo E. A. (2010) A Minimal Model of Metabolism-Based Chemotaxis. PLoS Computational Biology. 6(12):e1001004.
Egbert M. D., Di Paolo E. A. (2009) Integrating Autopoiesis and Behavior: An Exploration in Computational Chemo-ethology. Adaptive Behavior, 17(5):387-401.

CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

Egbert M. D. (2018) Investigations of an Adaptive and Autonomous Sensorimotor Individual. The 2018 Conference on Artificial Life: A Hybrid of the European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL) and the International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALIFE), 343-350.
Egbert M. D., Keane A., Postlethwaite C. (2017) Lag in Situated, Embodied and Dynamical Adaptive Systems. In: Advances in Artificial Life, Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL, (pp. 130–137) MIT Press..
Egbert M. D., Pérez-Mercader J. (2016) Quantifying Viability. In Artificial Life 15: Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. MIT Press..
Egbert M. D., Canamero L. (2014) Habit-based Regulation of Essential Variables. In: H. Sayama, J. Rieffel, S. Risi, R. Doursat, & H. Lipson (Eds.) Artificial Life 14: Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems.
Egbert M. D., Gruenert G., Escuela G., Dittrich P. (2013) Synthetic signalling protocell networks as models of neural computation. In P. Lio, O. Miglino, G. Nicosia, S. Nolfi, & M. Pavone (Eds.), Advances in Artificial Life, ECAL (pp. 248–249).
Egbert M. D., Barandiaran X. E. (2011) Quantifying Normative Behaviour and Precariousness in Adaptive Agency. In: Lenaerts T., Giacobini M., Bersini H., Bourgine P., Dorigo M. & Doursat R. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Artificial Life. MIT Press.
Egbert M. D., Barandiaran X. E., Di Paolo E. A. (2010) Behavioral Metabolution: Metabolism based behavior enables new forms of adaptation and evolution. In: Fellermann H, Dorr M, Hanczyc M, Laursen LL, Maurer S, Merkle D et al., (Eds.), Artificial Life XII: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Simulation and Synthesis of Living Systems. (pp. 213–220). MIT Press.
Egbert M. D., Di Paolo E. A., Barandiaran X. E. (2009) Chemo-ethology of an Adaptive Protocell: Sensorless sensitivity to implicit viability conditions. In G. Kampis, I. Karsai, & E. Szathmary (Eds.), Advances in Artificial Life, Proceedings of the 10th European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL. (pp. 242–250).Springer, Berlin.
Virgo N., Egbert M. D., Froese T. (2009) The Role of the Spatial Boundary in Autopoiesis. In: Proceedings of the Tenth European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL09. (pp. 234–242), Budapest, Springer Verlag.
Egbert M. D., Di Paolo E. A. (2008) Mechanisms of adaptation to periodic environmental change. In M. Schlesinger, L. Berthouze, & C. Balkenius (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (Vol. 139, pp. 141–142)Lund University Cognitive Studies.