Gallery

The pattern that won Conway's $50 prize. Bill Gosper's team at MIT found it in November 1970, proving that a Life population can g…

Seven cells that take 5,206 generations to stabilise, ending as 633 cells spread over a huge area. Charles Corderman's classic dem…

Five cells that refuse to settle. It runs for 1,103 generations, throws off six gliders, and finishes as 116 cells of debris. Conw…

Ten cells inside a 5x5 box that grow forever - the smallest bounding box known to do so. Paul Callahan found it in 1995 by exhaust…

Three cells flipping between horizontal and vertical. The first oscillator anyone ever sees and still the most common one in rando…

Conway found it by running a row of ten cells. Period 15 - unusually long for something so small - and it emits sparks that make i…

The largest common oscillator: 48 cells with fourfold symmetry, pulsing on a period of 3. Despite its size it turns up naturally i…

A c/10 orthogonal spaceship found in 2016 by a user known only as 'zdr' - proof that after half a century the search space is stil…

Five cells that walk diagonally across the grid, one cell every four generations. Conway's group found it in 1969 and it became th…

The smallest orthogonal spaceship, travelling at half the speed of light. Known as the LWSS.

Also called the fishhook. It swallows an incoming glider and repairs itself in four generations, which makes it the essential buil…

A seven-cell fragment that appears constantly inside larger reactions. It runs 148 generations and leaves a glider behind - which …

A nine-cell methuselah that runs for 17,332 generations - one better than Rabbits, which is exactly the sort of margin this hobby …

Seven cells that vanish completely after exactly 130 generations. No pattern of seven or fewer cells is known to last longer befor…

Named by Conway for its resemblance to a symbol used by William Herschel. Herschel tracks - long chains of still lifes that shuttl…

Nine cells, 17,331 generations. Found by Andrew Trevorrow in 1986 and one of the longest-lived small methuselahs known.

A simple, symmetric starter that runs for 243 generations.

Two blocks touching at a corner. The facing corners wink on and off while the rest stays put.

A four-fold symmetric period 2 oscillator that rotates a quarter turn each generation.

Two 3x3 blocks that trade places on a diagonal every four generations.

A pinwheel of bars that rotates through a period of 8. Named for Jan Kok, who found it in 1971.

An octagonal ring that pumps in and out on a period of 5.

Two offset rows breathing in and out. Period 2, six cells.

The largest of the three classic orthogonal ships. Add another segment and it becomes unstable - which is why the family stops her…

One cell wider than the LWSS and just as fast. The MWSS leaves a slightly larger spark, which matters when you are building with t…

Two tubs sharing a diagonal. Barges are members of the same extensible family as boats and ships.

Six cells in a hexagon. After the block, the second most common thing a random soup settles into.

The simplest still life and the most common object in a random soup. Four cells, each with three neighbours - perfectly balanced, …

The smallest still life that is not symmetrical under all four rotations. A boat with one extra cell becomes a long boat; a boat p…

A beehive with a tail. Loaves frequently appear in pairs and fours - a 'bakery' - in the ash left behind by larger reactions.

A boat stretched by one diagonal step. The family continues: very long boat, very very long boat, and so on.

An eight-cell ring. Ponds often appear as the residue of a collision and sit there forever.

A diagonal still life. Extendable indefinitely into 'long ships' by inserting more diagonal steps.

Four cells around a hole. Add a cell to any corner and you get a boat.