Worker bee
| Worker bee | |||||||||||
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| Pattern type | Oscillator | ||||||||||
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| Number of cells | 34 | ||||||||||
| Bounding box | 16 × 11 | ||||||||||
| Period | 9 (mod: 9) | ||||||||||
| Heat | 15.6 | ||||||||||
| Volatility | 0.66 | 0.66 | ||||||||||
| Kinetic symmetry | +e | ||||||||||
| Discovered by | David Buckingham | ||||||||||
| Year of discovery | 1972 | ||||||||||
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Worker bee (or lonely bee[1]) is a period-9 oscillator and was found by David Buckingham in 1972.[2][3] It consists of four eater 1s hassling a line-of-six spark.
Similar to the snacker, the worker bee is extensible - it is, in fact, a finite version of the infinite one-cell-thick oscillator consisting of alternating groups of six ON cells and two OFF cells.
This oscillator first appeared semi-naturally in April 2015, in a symmetric soup submitted to Catagolue by Dave Greene.[4]
On August 4, 2023, Carson Cheng and Chris857 reduced the synthesis cost from 19 to 17 gliders.[5][6] On August 28, 2025, iNoMed found a 16-glider synthesis based on a semi-natural occurrence.[7][8]
| The infinite version of worker bee (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here |
p6 worker bee
The same unstable object (albeit not in the one-cell-thick phase) is also hasslable by four toads to form the p6 worker bee (Catagolue: here) or by an unnamed object, mutually stabilising each other, to form an unnamed fourfold variant (Catagolue: here).
| period-6 variants (click above to open LifeViewer) |
There is also a p10 Worker Bee with larger sparkers. [9]
In other rules
By removing the isotropic non-totalistic transition B3r, the worker bee needs no external support. A row of 6 cells becomes a small period-9 pipsquirter.
| The worker bee in B3-r/S23 (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here |
See also
References
- ↑ Life Objects Sorted by Name (L) at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page
- ↑ Robert Wainwright (October 1972). Lifeline, vol 6, page 3.
- ↑ Dean Hickerson's oscillator stamp collection. Retrieved on March 14, 2020.
- ↑ Dave Greene (April 23, 2015). Re: Soup search results (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ shinjuku (#4803517190) (August 4, 2023). Job triggered by Adam P. Goucher at GitLab Catagolue project.
- ↑ Chris857 (August 1, 2023). Re: Synthesising Oscillators (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ iNoMed (August 28, 2025). Re: Synthesising Oscillators (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ shinjuku (#11169566163) (August 28, 2025). Job triggered by Adam P. Goucher at GitLab Catagolue project.
- ↑ Period1GliderGun (December 5, 2024). Re: Oscillator Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
External links
- Worker bee at the Life Lexicon
- Worker bee at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- 8 Period-9 oscillators at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page (download pattern file: lg/34lyet4.rle)
- 34P9.1 at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs
- Patterns
- Oscillators with 34 cells
- Periodic objects with minimum population 34
- Patterns with 34 cells
- Patterns found by David Buckingham
- Patterns found in 1972
- Patterns that can be constructed with 16 gliders
- Oscillators
- Oscillators with period 9
- Oscillators with mod 9
- Oscillators with heat 15
- Oscillators with volatility 0.66
- Oscillators with strict volatility 0.66
- Oscillators with +e symmetry
- Semi-natural periodic objects
- Extendable oscillators