whatThree species on a lattice, each eating the next in a circle: rock, paper, scissors. The chase curls into rotating spiral waves that keep all three alive indefinitely. Help one species with the slider and the whole ecosystem collapses, and never in favour of the one you helped.

whyCyclic competition is a real mechanism behind biodiversity, seen in lizards and bacteria alike. The piece shows that a standoff nobody can win is not a flaw in an ecosystem. It is the thing holding it together.

howEach cell holds one species. Every tick, a cell falls to its predator when at least three of its eight neighbours are that predator, so waves of pursuit sweep the lattice and wind into spirals. The slider lets rock take a bite with one fewer neighbour: scissors is ground down, the cycle snaps, and one survivor inherits the lattice before it is reseeded. Species is drawn as stroke orientation, flat, upright, leaning; the three traces are the populations.