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Digital DNA Circuits
TheSync writes "ScienceNews has a story about digital DNA circuits. The circuits use proteins that activate or deactivate genes on the DNA for control. Since an inverter and an AND gate have been created, any digital logic circuit can now be done in DNA. Moreover, evolution can help make circuit elements work better. There is even a "databook" of BioBricks circuit elements and BioSPICE for biocircuit simulation."
And people have known about them only for, oh, a few decades.
But proteins go into a little 3D bag, while transistors need to be packed near a flat surface with current VLSI technologies.
He wanted to remind you that he has held the copyright for DNA for billions of years now..
He's been in contact with his lawyers and is tallying your bill as we speak.
Transcription and translation happen at about 45 nucleotides per second in bacteria, meaning it takes at least a few seconds to get a signal through a genetic "gate" or "switch".
... to play the game of life?
The most interesting thing about this announcement is that this guy has been able to use evolution to improve his circuits. I don't expect molecular computers to surpass electronic computers, at least right away -- although they could theoretically perform faster than electronic computers in the short term, any advantage is offset by the time needed to convert the information to human-readable form (by finding and correctly reading the DNA sequence). As the article says, it's better to take advantage of the fact that you can "work with" bacteria. But if DNA computers could repair and upgrade themselves, they would have an advantage that electronics currently does not have. Electronics already is under intense artifical selection, and it can reproduce itself after a fashion, but unlike copper and aluminum, DNA computers can be randomly mutated, and the close homology between computers ensures that some of those mutations will be beneficial.
YES
NO
MAYBE
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I was listening to NPR the other day which focused on DNA as a computer.
The guy interviewed correllated the DNA genetic map to spaghetti code, a programmers worst nightmare. Apparently all through the genetic make-up of our bodies are "fuction calls" (to put it simply) and pathways that reference other calls and other pathways, over and over upon itself for a hundred million lines.
Its not the listing of the GTAC code (ie, genetic map) that's really necessary. Though of course it plays a part. Its the understanding of such code, what it does and what it controls, where power lies.
The guys interviewed all guessed it would be a hundred years or more before we began truly understanding what "functions" do what in the DNA strand and how it affects the organism in question.
Food for thought.