© Stiftung Jugend forscht
Jessica Lackas from the Saarland studied the mathematical game 'Game of Life', invented by the Briton John Conway in 1970. In the game, cells are placed on a chessboard-like field, which can assume the state 'alive' or 'dead'. According to certain simple rules, some cells must die, while others are allowed to live on or are reborn. Using software she wrote herself, the 18-year-old student was able to analyze the formation of complex life-like structures on the playing field. She won in the mathematics/computer science category.