Cellular automata  or CA (which we have discussed in class) has been   identified as a
important tool/concept in modeling many real real-world phenomena.  According to
one of the leading CA researchers Stefan Wolfarm, it is A New Kind of Science  
which has the ability to reproduce any kind of complexity  found in nature or  in
mathematical models !! 

  We believe that nature (or laws of nature) is simple and a simple mechanism
hides behind any complex phenomena. However, there are CA rules, which are
proven to be irreducible. The complex patterns produced by such rules can not be
produced by any simpler rules !!!

   CA provides example of what we call "life".  One of the basic property of
life is "reproduction". We do not know of a physical/mathematical law which
mimics reproduction ( A system or a part of the system produces a copy !!).
A simple 2-dimensional CA developed by a Cambridge mathematician
John Conway provides an example  of  "reproduction", named as 
Game of Life.

   A good source of reading material is the book A New Kind of Science  by
Stefan Wolfarm  (our library has a copy).

There are several web resources, of which I liked
1) The note book by  Cosma
2) Links  given here

For your readiong project I would suggest
  1) Define CA 
  2) List interesting findings
  3) Explain  "Game of life" in details
              (a java applet  can be found  here)