:natural Occurring often in random patterns. There is no precise measure of naturalness, since the most useful definition of "random" in this context is open to debate. Nonetheless, it is clear that objects such as blocks, blinkers, beehives and gliders are very natural, while eater2s, darts, guns, etc., are not.
:negative spaceship a type of signal traveling through a periodic agar such as zebra stripes. The leading edge of the signal removes the agar, and the trailing edge rebuilds the agar some time later. The distance between the two edges is sometimes adjustable -- see lightspeed bubble. The central part of the "spaceship" may consist of dying sparks or even simple empty space.
Below is a sample period-5 negative spaceship, found by Hartmut Holzwart in March 2007, in a small stabilized section of zebra stripes agar:
:negentropy (p2) Compare Hertz oscillator.
...OO.O.... ...O.OO.... ........... ....OOO.... ...O.O.O.OO ...OO..O.OO OO.O...O... OO.O...O... ....OOO.... ........... ....OO.O... ....O.OO... |
:neighbour Any of the eight cells adjacent to a given cell. A cell is therefore not considered to be a neighbour of itself, although the neighbourhood used in Life does in fact include this cell (see cellular automaton).
:new five (p3) Found by Dean Hickerson, January 1990.
..OO..... .O..O.... .O.O..O.. OO.O.OO.. O........ .OOO.OOOO .....O..O O.OO..... OO.OO.... |
:new gun An old name for the second known basic gun (found, like the first, by Bill Gosper), shown below. A number of other ways of constructing a gun from two twin bees shuttles have since been found - see edge shooter for one of these.
:Noah's ark The following diagonal puffer consisting of two switch engines. This was found by Charles Corderman in 1971. The name comes from the variety of objects it leaves behind: blocks, blinkers, beehives, loaves, gliders, ships, boats, long boats, beacons and block on tables.
See also ark.
:n-omino Any polyomino with exactly n cells.
:nonfiller = space nonfiller
:non-monotonic A spaceship is said to be non-monotonic if its leading edge falls back in some generations. The first example (shown below) was found by Hartmut Holzwart in August 1992. This is p4 and travels at c/4. In April 1994, Holzwart found examples of p3 spaceships with this property, and this is clearly the smallest possible period. Another non-monotonic spaceship is the weekender.
:non-spark Something that looks like a spark, but isn't. An OWSS produces one of these instead of a belly spark, and is destroyed by it.
:non-standard spaceship Any spaceship other than a glider, LWSS, MWSS or HWSS.
:non-trivial A non-trivial period-N oscillator contains at least one cell oscillates at the full period. In other words, it is not made up solely of separate oscillators with smaller periods; it includes a spark or other reaction that would not occur if all lower-period subpatterns were separated from each other. See omniperiodic.
:NW31 One of the most common stable edge shooters. This Herschel-to-glider converter suppresses the junk ordinarily left behind by an evolving Herschel while allowing both the first natural glider and second natural glider to escape on transparent lanes:
:NW31T120 The full designator of NW31. The T120 timing measurement means that a canonical NW glider placed at time T=120, at (+31, +0) relative to the input Herschel, would reach the exact same spacetime locations as the converter's output glider (assuming no interference from the conversion circuitry).