What to watch
- The central queen-bee reaction shuttles between two ends.
- The period is 30, matching the classic Gosper gun timescale.
- It helps explain how shuttle reactions can become emitters.
Oscillators
Queen bee shuttle
A period-30 oscillator closely tied to early glider-gun history.
The queen bee shuttle is a useful middle step between bounded oscillators and guns. It has a repeating active core that can be stabilized by still lifes at the ends.
- Category
- Oscillators
- Period
- 30
- Movement
- bounded
- Population
- 20 cells
- Bounding box
- 22 x 7
- Known since
- 1970
How to use it
Use it after pulsar and pentadecathlon when introducing shuttles, hasslers, and glider-gun construction.
Open the pattern in the lab, reduce the speed, and use single-step mode when a phase change is hard to see. The green preview marks births in the next generation; red outlines mark live cells that will die.