Snail Computer Game
Yvone Brem
More than 50 species of tree snail in the South Pacific Society Islands were wiped out following the introduction of an alien predatory snail in the 1970s, but the white-shelled Partula hyalina survived.
P. hyalina is important culturally for Polynesians because of its unique color, making it attractive for use in shell leis and jewelry. Tree snails also play a vital role in island forest ecosystems, as the dominant group of native grazers.
Bick and Foighil wanted to attach light sensors to the snails, but a system made using commercially available chips would have been too big. Bick found news of a smart sensor system that was just 2x5x2 mm, and the developers were at her own institution. But could it be altered to sense light?
After testing enabled by local Michigan snails, 50 M3s made it to Tahiti in 2017. Bick and Lee joined forces with Trevor Coote, a well-known conservation field biologist and specialist on the French Polynesian snails.
The team glued the sensors directly to the rosy wolf snails, but P. hyalina is a protected species and required an indirect approach. They are nocturnal, typically sleeping during the day while attached underneath leaves. Using magnets, the team placed M3s both on the tops and undersides of leaves harboring the resting P. hyalina. At the end of each day, Lee wirelessly downloaded the data from each of the M3s.
What is the best hardware to use ?
I want it be close to 2005 period correct or just the best hardware before 2010.
It is going to be a Music/Gaming build.
I already have the sound cards picked out.
no you wouldn't, forget thinking that in 2005 you were going to buy a late gen CedarMill board like 955X and use a p4 then in 2006 you were going to upgrade to conroe becasue none of them had VRM support for conroe 1 year later.
2005, year before core 2 came out, top end was an fx-57 and 7800 gtx 512mb, 2010 was the 875k and gtx 480, or 580 if you want to count it having been released at the end of the year. 7800 gtx 512mb versions are rare now but 7900 gtx is near identical, and 875k was a bit of a regression where a six core gen one i7 xeon x5650-90 would be the CPU of choice for that period now, and fx-57 can be pricey for what you get, a faster substitute being an x2 6400+ than can be down clocked if looking to speed match. In c2d terms fx-57 was relative to a 6600 if I recall, or was that the x2 6400+?, core 2 choice today being an overpowered quad xeon x5450-92, down clock again for speed parity. Top end 05 period correct would be the fx-57 /w a 7900gtx, 7800 gtx 512mb if you could find it, mind you, period correct, even top end is going to result in not full speed even for average frame rate for some games, look at old bench marks. Personally my aim would be maximizing performance as best it can with 60/120 fps lows being the target if possible while not breaking old games and features. Speaking of period correct, there's some recent youtube videos that have revisited CRTs saying they're still better than even 240hz LCDs and look better as well.
Honestly though there are plenty of good suggestions here already if you really want 2005 build go AMD like everyone here as repeatidly said. If you want intel go for either X48 last gen Core2 architecture. Or go for Gen 1 I7 architecture with a X58 for pre 2010
The system that goes into that snail case should reflect the snail shape... basically the slowest hardware available new in 2005. Older stuff that was on clearance from previous years is even a better match. ?
Make sure to get at least DDR3-2000 and if not overclocking the CPU (a real shame to not overclock this setup), then at least run the RAM at a higher speed. The system will be a lot better with the RAM at DDR3-1600 or higher. Some games that were newer in that period need the higher throughput and lower latency for the RAM or eles they are a stuttery mess.
The sensor needed to be able to determine whether their white shells gave these snails an evolutionary advantage by tracking light. Since the sensor could already recharge its own batteries with solar cells, Lee realized he could continuously measure the light level by measuring the speed at which the battery was charging.
Most ecology and conservation studies involving data from sensors are done on vertebrate animals, which can carry larger and heavier devices than invertebrates. The current study not only offers insights into the conservation measures needed to ensure the survival of a species of snails, it points the way for future studies of very small animals through similar partnerships.
The system Bick found online was known as the Michigan Micro Mote (M3), which was created to go where other sensing devices could not. Measuring just 2x5x2mm, including packaging, it could be used to track animals the size of the rosy wolf snail (with an adult shell 3-7cm) in their natural habitat.
The M3s developed for this study ran on only 40 nanowatts in standby mode, and 228 nanowatts when actively sensing. To give an idea of how miniscule this is, there are 1B nanowatts in a single watt. With the extremely small battery included in the M3, which can provide about only a few millions of a watt for a single hour, every nanoamp counts. The ability of the M3 to run on such low power was key to its success.
After local testing enabled by local Michigan snails, 50 M3s made it to Tahiti in 2017. Bick and Lee joined forces with Trevor Coote, a well-known conservation field biologist and specialist on the French Polynesian snails.
The data revealed a dramatic difference in how much sun reached the habitats of the surviving P. hyalina as opposed to the rosy wolf snail. During the noon hour, the P. hyalina habitat received on average 10 times more sunlight than the rosy wolf snails. Specifically, the average light intensity reached 7,674 to 9,072 lux for the P. hyalina habitat, but only 540 to 762 lux for the rosy wolf snail.
Unintended consequences: In 1974, scientists introduced the rosy wolf snail to the Society Islands, home to Tahiti, in the hopes it would help control the population of giant African land snails, which had become a major pest.
She reached out to the M3 team, which had just added tiny solar cells to the computer to charge its battery. They realized that by measuring the speed at which the battery charged, they could keep track of the amount of sunlight hitting the computer at any given time.
The study yields new insights into the survival of a native snail important to Tahitian culture and ecology and to biologists studying evolution, while proving the viability of similar studies of very small animals including insects
More than 50 species of tree snail in the South Pacific Society Islands were wiped out following the introduction of an alien predatory snail in the 1970s, but the white-shelled Partula hyalina survived.
P. hyalina is important culturally for Polynesians because of its unique color, making it attractive for use in shell leis and jewelry. Tree snails also play a vital role in island forest ecosystems, as the dominant group of native grazers.
The team glued the sensors directly to the rosy wolf snails, but P. hyalina is a protected species and required an indirect approach. They are nocturnal, typically sleeping during the day while attached underneath leaves. Using magnets, the team placed M3s both on the tops and undersides of leaves harboring the resting P. hyalina. At the end of each day, Lee wirelessly downloaded the data from each of the M3s.
The data revealed a dramatic difference in how much sun reached the habitats of the surviving P. hyalina as opposed to the rosy wolf snail. During the noon hour, the P. hyalina habitat received on average 10 times more sunlight than the rosy wolf snails. Specifically, the average light intensity reached 7,674 to 9,072 lux for the P. hyalina habitat, but only 540 to 762 lux for the rosy wolf snail.
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