Slashdot Mirror
Computer Made From DNA And Enzymes
develop writes "Some folks from Israel have created a computer that runs on DNA and enzymes and is supposedly 100,000 times faster then today's PCs. Information at National Geographic, Telegraph UK and United Press." According to the National Geographic story, this DNA-based computer "can perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC." However, be aware that most of this is still future tense, and what these researchers have now is just a proof-of-concept.
"computer made FOM" . . .?
How lovely.
funny munging
330 trillion calculations per second? Impressive, but can it run Doom 3?
:gasp: not foam DNA and enzymes
I never said I was smart, I just said I was smarter than you
Earlier today I hawked up a loogie in the parking lot. While at the moment it is only a puddle of goo, or "proof of concept", I predict that this collection of DNA and enzymes will someday be capable of performing over 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of the fastest PC!
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
I wonder when they'll get up to the computational speeds of the human brain. Hmm-mmm.
E000-VB14-G8RY
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those machines...wait a minute, I am one!
Could this be a stepping-stone to one day being able to create simple life forms from scratch?
Additionally, if a DNA computer gets a virus, could it spread to humans?
Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
Is going to claim he invented this!!
I hear Feed Only Memory is the future of storage.
..let's hope Slashcode will support it for headline verification !
I don't think I'd be responsible enough to remember to feed my computer.
and is supposedly 100,000 times faster then today's PCs
Obviously this number depends on what task you assign it.
Now we can finally learn the answer to Life, the Universe... and Everything!
::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
It may perform 330 trillion operations per second, but it has NO PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS for that computing power. (Read the stories).
;-)
Granted that it's interesting....but it's not much further along than quantum computing.
Also, I'm wondering if Guinness would recognize my computer where I mix two liquid chemicals together and they change color as a computer that can switch froms 0s to 1s more-or-less instantly and on a massively parallel scale
-psy
they should have put this quote in the FRONT of the article so we don't get all excited over nothing. saves a lot of reading too.
btw - I wonder how they will allow interation (no nasty thoughts please) to a DNA computer; actually - how do they make "JMP" instructions in DNA? enzymes don't just skip a few million pairs for shits and giggles. told it to do so...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
If an organic computer is vapourware, does it smell like a fart?
Trolling is a art,
What are you talking about? The massive parallelism of the brain makes it perform computations much faster than fifteen year old electronics.
E000-VB14-G8RY
National Geographic talking about the limitations of the new concept.
"The device can check whether a list of zeros and ones has an even number of ones. The computer cannot count how many ones are in a list, since it has a finite memory and the number of ones might exceed its memory size. Also, it can only answer yes or no to a question. "
Don't computers already have a finite memory? And aren't binary numbers just a long series of yes/no questions?
Completely false. The massive parallelism of the brain allows it to do parallel operations quickly (pattern recognition, etc) The switching speed of the brain is much much slower than todays transistors, making it dogmeat compared to a modern CPU for raw computing power.
Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of these. It'll probably be too tiny to see, but it will still be a Beowulf Cluster!
What if you have one of these and it looks like algae, and you keep it in a fish tank?
"Hey, What happened to my computer! It's gone!" "I didn't do anything, I just cleaned the fish tank!"
And last of all, can it play Ogg?
LFS. Have you built your system today?
WTF? Has the world gone mad?
I am made from DNA and enzymes!
My brain performs more than 330 trillion ops/sec (stuff like image analysis, speech recognition, "AI",...)
AND YOU DARE CALL ME "just a proof-of-concept"!?!?
Welcome to the miracle of birth (and cloning). This is the 21st century!
Listen, buddy. I'm the result of billions of years in the evolutionary compile-link-debug cycle. So just show some bloody respect. Would you like to see my proof-of-concept gross-human-mutilation firsthand? No? Then keep your childish insults to yourself!
(from Israel ... hmmm ... do they cut the PS/2 port off the end of the keyboard cable? *just kidding, folks* )
This sig intentionally left bla... dammit!
Who's got the whiteout?
One day this beautifull puddle of goo will evolve into something wonderfull. By then it will be able to massively execute in parrallel and become capable of abstract thinking. It will have reached a new level of understanding and power. No wait, we can already make those! All it takes is a little love!
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
To understand all the hype, here is an article about how DNA computing works. DNA Computing, interestingly, was first proposed by Prof. Len Adleman (of RSA fame), who used it to solve the famous travelling salesman problem for seven cities. He encoded the cities in DNA such that only valid tours could react and form longer strands. The reaction was instant and presto - he had a solution (pun unintended ;)) in a gazillionth of a second.
Here is the bad news. The solution to the problems might be instant, but programmability and reading the output are still headaches. It is interesting to note that it took Adleman several days to read the answer even though the DNA computer "figured out" the answer in no time. But its a promising technology that would be refined in future no doubt.
-Dracken
Will the Playstation 3 seriously use this? I heard them talk about it using it in the past.
That depends - do you dream of electric sheep?
I was first introduced to DNA computing by Leonard M. Adleman's article Molecular Computation of Solutions to Combinatorial Problems which describes using DNA computers to solve problems such as the notorious Traveling Salesman problem.
The basic idea is to coerce a ton of DNA into producing random potential solutions to the problem, and to then use chemical processes to select "good" solutions in mass. Since the space of possible solutions to Traveling Salesman problems of any reasonable size is tremendous (larger than the national debt expressed in pesos) DNA computing has an edge over traditional methods, because solutions are easy to generate and then weed out.
Unfortunately, this is really just a gigantic parallel processor - with each strand of DNA the memory of a processor induced by the chemical manipulations, and a small subset of useful algorithms are parallelizable (can be broken up into small "chunks" that can be computed independently and tied back for a larger result.
The immense benefit that this technology will have will be in fields like evolutionary computation. Evolutionary computation relies upon generating large populations of solutions, and then applying simple rules (which could be chemically encoded) to "improve" the generation, towards the pursuit of some ultimate goal. This could be training a neural network to predict coronary artery disease, or optimizing the design of a jet engine without tackling fluid dynamics - truly wondrous!
It's hard to tell from the limited detail in the articles, but this just sounds like what's been done previously, only with a larger number of molecules. The nature of DNA computation as it exists severely limits the real-world usefulness of DNA computing. It's nothing like a general purpose CPU. It involves (at least) several hours to manufacture a bunch of DNA to do a one-off run of your algorithm. Basically, it would be very adept at the any computing tasks that could be effectively addressed by a beowulf cluster of a few billion Intel 4004s, if there are any such tasks. Photonics is the most likely face of computing in the future, with quantum computing filling the niches that only it can fill.
For great justice.
Im curious to know how these compare to quantum computers.
Imagine what a beowulf of these would look like!
Perhaps a little like a scandinavian warrior from the 6th century!?
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
And in news just in,
INTEL creates a 2Tera htz pentum 5..
how ever this is jsut proff of concept,
dont expect to see it before 2015..
I meen come on,
theres been plenty of 'proof of concept'
about DNA/emzine computers..
its not like the proof off concept behind
something that is though to be imposible..
so right now, what they have is vaporeware??
a blueprint for something they think
'might work'
that the 'could posibly build'??
and hear was i thinking something had
been done..
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
All I want to do is shop and compare prices on those damn DNA computers they're explaining to me...and what do I get for my inquisitive click?
Information on Goldtouch (MPN-GTC-4700) Keyboards. Where's the DNA in that, Mr. DealTime?
Cue The Sun...
I think they are using a BOGUS rating...
...busy signal... ...busy signal... ...cr4x1n in progr3ss... ...processing beans and jag...(dangerous combo)
I can do 100,000 different things, as I sit here and do nothing...isn't that called BOGOMIPS?
KIDNEY:
LIVER:
LYMPHNOD3S:
STOMACH:
calculate velocity of unladen western swallow carrying coconut...OVERFLOW
Kernel Panic!
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
If you read the article you'll notice that this isn't a programmable computer. It's yet another test-tube experiment in which DNA was pre-programmed to return a pre-defined result, engaged in a chemical reaction, and then the resultant data read from the DNA at a later time. So while the experiment itself likely took many months or years, they claim that "330 trillion calculations per second" were performed because that's the duration of the chemical reaction divided by the number of bits of information that were changed. You can't ever access that data and you can't program the machine, but hell, that's how long the chemical reaction took... I'm decidedly unimpressed.
That this has been posted in a new catagory, Biotech (no, you haven't seen that funny DNA logo before on /.)
:D
Can't wait to get a ton more proof-of-concept and far-fetched stories!!
Would not a biologically powered computer be politicaly incorrect?
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
Yeah, and on page 79 is a article about a newly discovered Amazon tribe 'untouched by modern man'.
Yet the women have remarkably perky breasts..
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Trillions of Computations per second?
Come on. Trillions of Chemical Reactions per second is more like it. I admit they were very creative to come up with a problem that could be encoded in DNA, but there is no computation going on IMO.
Vinegar and Baking Soda generate a trillions of computations per second too, but the result is always an overflow.
If this form of computer is lacking in practical computing power, then what good is it besides being a really fancy form of mould?
Another question that I am asking myself is how data is collected from the computer. Would the results be displayed as a change in color, or would it actually be something that would have to be monitored by a scientist or another computer?
I am curious as to what practical applications an impractical supercomputer may have. I can't see it as being effective for much more than the simplest of things, which are easily accomplished by a standard computer system. Seems to me as though the Israelis have re-invented the wheel. It would be nice to see another original invention, such as the UZI....
Person1: What did you do with my laptop? Those things don't just grow legs and walk away!
...
Person2: Uhm, well, uhh, this one did
In the long run, we're all dead.
I can see the adds now:
pr0n: have you fed your computer today?
Really honey, my kernel compiles were getting slower. I had to do something.
My brain performs more than 330 trillion ops/sec (stuff like image analysis, speech recognition, "AI",...)
The human brain has between 10 billion and 100 billion neurons. They can fire up to 100 times per second. 100 billion * 100/second is only 10 trillion per second.
So we must assume that either:
1. you have an enormous brain (3.3 trillion neurons would weigh about 50kg), or
2. that they fire very quickly, (you overclocked your brain and run around with a heatsinking hat and have to eat 20x a day) or
3. that you do some 'thinking' without using neurons.
Hmm, that last option seems to be the most reasonable. How's that working out for you, anyway?
I haven't seen this "biotech" icon before, I think it's pretty nifty. Does anyone know who designed it?
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
The abstract is available here. I've taken a look at the article since I have a subscription. The system implements a finite automaton, as opposed to Adleman's research which solved a much more complicated (NP-complete) problem. Also, the error rates are definitely too high to be useful at this point, but this is still intriguing research.
Best beowulf post ever. Just thought you might like to know.
Something fast enough to run Everquest.
YHBT
They actually implement a 2-state finite state automata with a two letter alphabet. The approach is basically something like the following. The 'hardware' is a restriction enzyme that is an offset cutter. The 'software' are pieces of DNA with 4-base DNA overhangs.
The transition table is essentially coded in the software DNA molecules. The current state of the machine and the current input symbol is coded for by a unique 4 base overhang. The software DNA has 4 base overhang to match a particular state, symbol. The software DNA binds to the input DNA, and then the restriction enzyme, since it is a 9-base offset cutter to the right, cuts the input to be in a new state. Something like the following:
Changing the number of ? spacers in the software changes where in the input you cut and therefore chooses between two of the possible set of four base overhangs for the next state. All the energy for the computation comes from breaking up the input DNA.
Based on their model, the maximum number of states possible in the FSA appears to be dependent on the size of the offset for FokI and I think it's like 5 states. (Possible to have more states with larger offset cutter?) The maximum number of automata state and input symbol combinations, since they use a 4 base overhang appears to be 4^4. So it's not quite general enough to match any regular expression, and not even close to a read/write tape for a Turing machine, but is an interesting approach.
DNA computing isn't new but it seems no one on /. has emphasized that the breakthru is using DNA as the source of fuel as well as information.
On second though why is that a good thing. Anyone care to elucidate?
I was about to download in my pants.
And they're even better at being killed by terrorist scumbags who would rather have war than peace.
Michael Dinowitz House of Fusion http://www.houseoffusion.com
Since I have no clue what you just said - just two questions:
.sig, this is not your specialty)
1) why in the world do you know this? (i mean, judging my the
2) where do you find the references? any data / book / website to back up / explain what you said?
thanks in advance
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Today we're computing with Denatured Alcohol.
When will the madness end?
KFG
Hand in hand with embedded computing, we will be able to control our environment like never before.
Lots will probably say that we can do this with computers today. My response is, that some things are easy and some things are harder. Take a strong, agile man who can pass obstacles in his stride. He finds very few problems he cannot overcome. He gains confidence in his ability so tries more and moves further, and his confidence is further boosted. Now imagine a weak, clumsy man. He has great difficulty with climbing over obstacles, moving, walking, etc. He has little confidence, so even though it is possible for him to overcome certain obstacles he doesn't because it is a tedious chore for him.
With fast computers we will have less fear to use them in powerful and new ways - especially if this causes the cost of current hardware to come down.
If nobody is around to *smell* this vaporware, does it even exist?
:-(
I'm fealing a little sad right now...I *think* I just heard a toilette flush; maybe somebody lost a turtle...
But I'm sure you already Gnu that.
No, the secret of Life, the Universe, and Everything cannot be found in one tenth of a joint. The secret lies in the question.
Will I retire or break 10K?
So, when one of these catches a virus, it REALLY catches a virus. Better stock up on PC-cillin.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
It sure beats the piles of toxic crap we generate now.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
OKay, so in recent history, some research groups from Israel have come up with the following:
1.) Quantum computers that cracked RC5 in a few miliseconds.
2.) "True AI" like HAL that they would raise from infancy and would be sentient.
3.) "Unbreakable" encryption.
4.) DNA computers that are 100,000 faster than any desktop PC (but whoops, it's only a PoC).
There's a few more, but I cannot recall them all. These were all posted on Slashdot, but I am lazy and don't feel like using the pitiful search function here to find them. I'm sure others will remember.
So what is it with "researchers" from that country coming up with all kinds of impossible and implausible discoveries that nobody else has even come close to producing... and then we never hear from them again? Is it common practice there to create a bullshit storm to get project funding or a bigger budget? Can someone clear this up for me?
Disclaimer: I am not anti-sematic or anything, I just want to know what the deal is.
Why bother.
yeah... or an assasin in a cell...
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
Yeah, we've been warned for about 20 years now. And they've already solved the problem.
My computer...? It's ALIVE !!!
$DEITY bless $NATION
The immense benefit that this technology will have will be in fields like evolutionary computation.
Are you trying to say that DNA could be of some practical use in genetic algorithms? That's pretty hard to swallow.
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
DNA Computing reminds me of analog computing devices, where the computation is instant, because of forces that bring a physical system into equilibrium. But it's the pre-processing and post-processing that are time-consuming. Consider a bunch of uncooked spaghetti sticks in your hand. Let us further suppose their lengths are proportional to a list of numbers you have with you. Hold them vertically against a table or other flat surface and release your hand. Bam! The spaghetti sticks fall into equilibrium. Then, from this bunch, pick out spaghetti sticks in ascending order and voila, you have sorted your list of numbers. Likewise, consider 5 burettes or other calibrated water-columns whose bottoms are all connected to a common tube. Use stop-cocks to separate each water column. Fill up the burettes with water corresponding to some list of numbers you have. Release the stop-cocks and the water level in all the burettes equalizes to the average of those numbers. Fun with analog computing!
Lets see here a computer made with DNA and enzymes. This would be technology close to creatures. Then we give it an artificial intelligence so it can do work for free. Sounding familiar yet? If not then here is what could happen. They revolt, huge war, and we end up as batteries. And then we won't have to worry about doom III because the world which we are plugged into will be before Doom III. Wait, maybe doom III is a conspiricy, by the machines? Okay maybe not.
FOML: Rise to Power
Insightful? I think we've all known this for a while, buddy.
Some scientists predict a future where our bodies are patrolled by tiny DNA computers that monitor our well-being and release the right drugs to repair damaged or unhealthy tissue.
Thanks, but I'll leave that up to my white blood cells for now.
few viruses jump species
This is just jibber jabber. Plenty of other badies cross species like bacteria (anthrax), hepatitus, and umm AIDS.
Hmm, although, you could probably keep such a computing system disease free by thoroughly cleaning whatever you put into the system.
-- -- --
Help my mini cause: My journal
I wonder what will come first with "real" biological machines: "tradional" computing (binary) or a new way of doing things ("quaternary"?). I guess the latter is more likely, since it follows a natural way of doing things...
:-)
Ok guys, let's start studying DNA sequencing. It's not "biology" anymore, it's "programmer's job security".
The ENIAC Demo Competition
be aware that most of this is still future tense, and what these researchers have now is just a proof-of-concept
Good, then there will be something powerful enough to play the "Doom3-killer" Duke Nukem Forever at decent frame rates.
Maybe modern men squeeze too hard.
As many of you have pointed out, DNA computers are not going to replace conventional electronic computers. Len Adleman, the inventor of DNA computing, has said "Despite our successes, and those of others, in the absence of technical breakthroughs, optimism regarding the creation of a molecular computer capable of competing with electronic computers on classical computational problems is not warranted." The problem is partly the effort required to read the answer once the solution is available, and partly the effort required to perform the computation itself. Reading the answer from the first DNA computation took Adleman about a week, and reading the answer from his most recent DNA computation (the largest computation ever performed) took two weeks. The computation itself was very manpower intensive: thousands of precise moves were required of a human experimentor to get the necessary components in a test tube, but once they were all in, the computation itself happened virtually instantly.
Although I have only read the popular accounts of this experiment and not the actual results, this experiment seems to simply be using the ATP in DNA as the power source for the computation instead of external ATP. This is impressive, but it is not the "technical breakthrough" needed to propel DNA computing to the everyday world.
The claim of this computer working 100,000 times faster than a PC is probably true. But this speed comes from the parallelism inherint in DNA computation. When each computer is only 1 molecule in size, it is easy to have 10^10 computers in one tube. But if you do the math, this says that each individual molecule is 100,000 times slower than a PC. So it is equally true to say that my PC is 100,000 times faster than a DNA computer, its just that I can't afford millions of them. This also says that DNA computers are not good for computations that are serial in nature: the speed comes from the fact that DNA computers can run in parallel.
That being said, there may be specific applications for DNA computers in the future. Because of their parallelism, DNA computers are great at solving NP-complete problems (not fuzzy logic problems, as said in the article). This does not make them tractable, however. They run in linear time, but take exponential space. So instead of the problem that "solving this problem will take the age of the universe" you run into the problem "solving this problem will require the mass of the Earth in DNA".
the computer ran a computation, well, quite a few of them, spit out an answer, but because we cant read it, the answer means nothing, since theres no question.
i bet the answer was 42.
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
They must have discovered the secret Kaballahscope!
Sort of like these guys did/ 8135.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive
They "took in" a lot of investors, now their web site is gone and so is the money.
DATE: 02 - 23 - 2013
Penguin is injected with Linux powered DNA computer and is dubbed Tux, hopefully will save us from the rampaging HAL - 9000 which was infected and seduced by the www.Newgrounds.com public enemy, Strawberry Clock.
On a side note: Man injects penis with Windows EO Special edition XP Audigy Platinum Chrome Series powered DNA computer in hopes of making love to his computer, is instead enslaved by new tissue manufacturing giant Microsoft.
There are two rules for success:
1. Never tell everything you know.
I feel better now.
-Lucas
>Is it made from Jewish DNA?
No. Pure, plain, old-fashioned kosher DNA.
Is there any way to factor a huge number with DNA computers? Similar to how that travelling salesman problem was solved, you could put every prime encoded into DNA, add em together in a test tube where they will all be magically multiplied :P, and look for the number you want.
Seems about as plausible as this article anyway...
Well, I don't know about inferior PCs, but this isn't 100,000 times faster than the fastest G4. The fastest Apple G4 is the Dual 1.42 GHz. It has a peak performance of 21 Gigaflops, or 21 billion operations per second. Now let's break that down:
- Divide 21 by 2, since there are 2 processors after all = 10.5 Billion ops per second for one G4.
- Working in Billions, 330,000/10.5 = 31428.57
As you can see, the DNA computer is only 31,428.57 times faster than the fastest G4. The MHz (GHz) Myth is destroyed once again. Go Apple!Request: ECM unit, 1000 km fullerene cable, 1 tactical nuclear weapon. Reason: Birthday party for foreign dignitary.
My brain can do 330 trillion calculations per second, ha, I can even do 700 trillion on a decent day, but I just choose not too... will this new computer have similar flaws?
"Some scientists predict a future where our bodies are patrolled by tiny DNA computers that monitor our well-being and release the right drugs to repair damaged or unhealthy tissue."
WOW - that's incredible! You know what? They should call it the "immune system!"
What will those scientists think of next?
This is only like my 9th Slashdottings but I think it's safe to say that the monster you describe is a 70yr old Bill Gates boosted up the anal with cyborg implants and new bodys which he would migrate to every 100 years, Emperor Palpatine style.
AC, you obviously have no experience with computers. Even with a nice hard laptop, you have to pound and pummel quite a lot (especially if you're being 'gentle' because you don't want to damage that expensive screen) before you can get that accursed central nervous system to hand in its papers. This is just bio-goop! It won't pound. It will slosh and splatter. It's useless for murdering Palestinians.
OTOH, I can see a marketing campaign here: "It smashes! It eviscerates! It runs GNU/Linux!"
It's just like a fascist dictatorship, without the punctual rail service!
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030303/story3. html
There are very few fruits of the world experts, I'm very glad that you're one of them. Tell me what part of a lilikoi you eat and I'll give you a cookie!
You should check these two columns, DNA supercomputers in our future? and DNA Computing to learn more about the limitations of DNA computing. For example, Len Adleman, a professor at the University of Southern California, says "that DNA computers will never be able to rival their electronic counterparts for speed without an unforeseen scientific breakthrough, he does think that they have a future niche. One day, a DNA computer programmed to react to the presence of a toxin, such as cancer, could be embedded into a cell. When it detects the toxin, the computer would respond by directing the cell to replicate and chemoluminesce or "glow." The glow could be seen with the naked eye allowing for early disease detection and saving lives."
Oh no! My lab report got autoclaved! :-)
Psh, can it run a bot that can beat Manowar at Quake 1 Matador?
Banaaaana!
No, potentially to hours.
The first application of DNA computing was to (very simple) traveling salemen problems. The traveling salesmen problem is NP-complete - if you can solve it in polynomial time, you can solve in principle all other NP-complete problems, such as factoring a large number. All public key systems that I know of relie on the NP-completeness of some calculation, such as factoring.
So, the potential for breaking public keys has been shown, it's just a matter of reducing it to practice.
The latest models of neuron behavior allow the room for 'paralel computing':
The neuron sends information in the exact location-in-time of the firing, as compared to other firings and firings from other neurons
So, a firing is not a "1" bit, but more like a number, signifying when it was shot.
I think the shape and size of the shot matter too, but I'm talking temporal here. I'm getting somewhere, trust me
If a neuron fires 100 times a second, you can think of it as an 'analog array' lengthing a second, and filled with up to 100 'spots' or 'points' - the actual firings
Neurons make computation from the firings of connected neurons, and from the firings' temporal proximity.
For instance, there exists a layer on the vision cortex (in cats, I believe. But prolly humans too) in which each neuron is connected to a 'line' (many neurons forming a line on the cortex itself), and fires up as firings proceed in a certain order, in a certain time.
Therefor, the neuron only fires when there is movement in a certain direction (and will strongly abstain from firing if the movement is the other way)
So, basically, my point is 'yeah'.
A neuron firing sends many different signals to many different neurons, because each of them sees the signal differently, having gotten different firings from other neurons they connect to.
So when you think of a neuron's connections to other neurons (the synapses, lag on synapse, etc.) you can think of them as asking "what is the meaning of this neuron's firing, in time? Does it reinforce what is happening right now, or supresses?". If the neuron's firing has no relevancy in time, the connection is not really made (its weight is 0 - no connection).
My other
In this column, you'll find my comments on both the "Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes" article, published by National Geographic News and "New DNA Computer Functions sans Fuel" story provided by Scientific American. But more importantly, you'll find the real *meat*, the abstract of the research conducted by the scientists of the Weitzmann Institute of Science. It is published in today's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
I guess they have they cloned a human being.
Also, as the Nat'l Geo. article says, one of the best applications for this technique would be in calculating "fuzzy" problems where you would like to compute many possible solutions and then find the correct one. While it is true that this might speed up the actual calculation of the individual results, there would still be the issue of searching through all the results for the optimal or desired answer, which is no trivial task if you have just a heap of several tens of millions of unsorted inputs. Ultimately, as they allude to, this might become a kind of fancy "co-processor" for certain types of problems in high-end computing, but I have trouble seeing this as a realistic solution for the desktop.
There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie -Noel Godin
Will such a computer be what it takes to play Doom III at tolerable rate?
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
I did some searching and got two of the articles:
Israeli AI System "Hal" And The Turing Test
I've also noticed this "bullshit storm" and would like to know why they are doing this.
"100,000 times faster then today's PCs"
Try "100,000 times faster THAN today's PCs". Sheesh. This error is creeping into books and magazines, too. I dread the day the linguists give up and just list "then" and "than" as alternate spellings for each other.
- Jasen.
I'm timothy and I have a rare bone-marrow disease that prevents me fom typing the letter R in fom.
Karma: NaN
A couple years ago /. ran a story about Israel developing a quantum computer that rendered all modern cryptographic systems obsolete. Man, those guys over there sure are busy.
Call me when the vapor clears...
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
They're revolutionizing the industry just about their speed ratings! Since it isn't a fully functioning computer you follow the number by a minus, but since it's a future prediction you add an additional plus sign. I didn't read the article for a prediction as to WHEN it will run that fast, perhaps that goes between the signs:
330000000-365+
Or maybe you just divide it out:
1000000-+
Hmmm, I wonder what AMD has to say about this.
8-PP
They claim that this DNA computer can perform over 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 times the speed of current computers, but wouldn't you have to take into account the time it took to setup and read the answer?
..they'll need to engineer a soul so they'll have an Operating System.
Anybody remember this thing? almost as fast as the DNA computer.
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
The article mentioned liquid-mixing to get results. So did your color-changing scheme. We all must consider the energy required to move these dense liquids and mix them. Do you set up the protiens (i.e. program the DNA computer) for one calculation at a time, by hand, in your kitchen? Of course not. So to inject these chemicals and fluids at any automated level would require the very electrical systems (and electronic logic to power them) these scientists are postulating to eliminate. The speed benefit is undeniable, but likewise is the notion that you cannot eliminate the current electrical/electronic technology to make it useful.
hi, I like pancakes -.-- -.-- --..
is anybody considering a mod_dna for apache?
So it's not realtime. Cut us biotechnologists some slack here, you couldn't play Quake on ENIAC either (though I'm sure somebody tried to - "Lag! Lag! Switch the plugs faster!").
Freedom: "I won't!"
No, there is no way a virus from your DNA computer could ever infect you.
Look at a normal virus; it enters your cell and hijacks the cellular machinery to copy itself a zillion times. It may effect the DNA already in the cell, but only to carry out its other goals.
Now look at a DNA virus. There are certain DNA sequences in your genome that can copy over themselvs to other locations when DNA is copied, just like a computer virus. A DNA computer would be vulnerable to this and you are too, but the only way to be infected is from your parents, so you don't have to worry about a DNA computer infecting you... well, at least not accidentally (can't forget retroviruses).
This sig wasn't worth reading, was it.
You also have to include that each brain cell on the average may touch 1,000 - 10,000 other brain cells. Each connection is at least an op. So it is more on the order of quadrillions of ops, or peta-ops in metric terminology. Still, IBM plans a general-purpose system of this order in the 2010s decade.
At any given time there are special purpose computers that run thousands of times faster the fastest generally programmable computer of the era. However, you can only do a very limited set of problems on the special purpose machines.
The amusing thing is that frequently by the time an entrepeneur engineers more generality into the special machine, the mass-market computers have caught up. I've seen this happen many times in the supercomputer industry- Saxpy, Masspar, Thinking Machines, Tera, etc.
Exactly, Evolution is a belief system like any other religion.