Yeah, right. More wonky Star Trek science
here -- doesn't the U.S.S. Voyager use
biomolecular computers? (And why do I know that?)
Well, it isn't that far-fetched anymore. It started
in 1994, when scientists first demonstrated the use
of DNA as computational material. DNA is a
tremendous data storage medium: its "data density,"
or data storage capacity, is over 100,000 times that
of a standard hard drive. Even better, DNA is
constructed to "parallel process" data, a much more
efficient and fast method than the sequential
processing used by most computers. Today several
companies, such as Affymetrix (www.affymetrix.com)
are working to produce "genechips" based on DNA
sequencing. Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine are working with synthetic molecules that
form the basis of a new, DNA-based computing
architecture. The scientists say that biological
computing like this would be cheap and easy, because
the raw materials are plentiful and cheap ("'We've
come for your DNA.' 'But I'm still using it!'") and
the equipment necessary to manipulate the molecules
exists in any decent biology lab. Observers say that
biotechnology is progressing at a rate comparable to
that of the semiconductor industry, which means that
DNA ccomputing isn't as far off as one might think.
For a good baseline article on DNA computing, surf
to arstechnica.com/reviews/2q00/dna/dna-1.html.
Yeah, right. More wonky Star Trek science
here -- doesn't the U.S.S. Voyager use
biomolecular computers? (And why do I know that?)
Well, it isn't that far-fetched anymore. It started
in 1994, when scientists first demonstrated the use
of DNA as computational material. DNA is a
tremendous data storage medium: its "data density,"
or data storage capacity, is over 100,000 times that
of a standard hard drive. Even better, DNA is
constructed to "parallel process" data, a much more
efficient and fast method than the sequential
processing used by most computers. Today several
companies, such as Affymetrix (www.affymetrix.com)
are working to produce "genechips" based on DNA
sequencing. Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of
Medicine are working with synthetic molecules that
form the basis of a new, DNA-based computing
architecture. The scientists say that biological
computing like this would be cheap and easy, because
the raw materials are plentiful and cheap ("'We've
come for your DNA.' 'But I'm still using it!'") and
the equipment necessary to manipulate the molecules
exists in any decent biology lab. Observers say that
biotechnology is progressing at a rate comparable to
that of the semiconductor industry, which means that
DNA ccomputing isn't as far off as one might think.
For a good baseline article on DNA computing, surf
to arstechnica.com/reviews/2q00/dna/dna-1.html.