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World's First Game-Playing DNA Computer

Posted by simoniker on from the why's-the-enzyme-always-allowed-to-go-first? dept.

An anonymous reader writes "NewScientist.com posted an article today about the first game-playing 'computer' powered by DNA logic. An interesting read, although not at all a practical alternative for those looking to replace their PlayStation2 with the next great platform." The machine is "...an enzyme-powered tic-tac-toe machine that... uses a complex mixture of DNA enzymes to determine where it should place its nought or cross, and signals its move with a green glow."

15 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Shall We Play A Game? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Obligatory of course. However, maybe this time we can stick with a nice game of chess, eh?

  2. Game Playing DNA? by mopslik · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bah, my DNA's been playing Life for ages.

    1. Re:Game Playing DNA? by Phekko · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can guarantee your DNA'll lose eventually, though ;)

      --

      Sigs for Nerds. Sigs that Matter.
  3. Ok sure, by arcite · · Score: 5, Funny

    When Leisure Suit Larry get ported, call me.

  4. Wrong game by WTFmonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Naughts and crosses? I though you played tic tac to with xes and os. Man, I've been playing wrong all these years.

  5. CNN article by kaan · · Score: 5, Informative

    here's a similar article titled "DNA basis for new generation of computers"

  6. GREAT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll dump some DNA on my wifes face tonight, then say "your move".

  7. Summary for those to lazy to RTA by stienman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Essentially they have 9 enzymes to specify the nine possible moves of the player. Once a move is chosen the enzyme for that position is added to each of the nine wells. The DNA inside each well is aware of its location, and, of course, each of the player's moves since the enzymes are added to each well.

    The DNA in each well makes a simple logic decision based on all the enzymes it currently detects and turns green to indicate that the dna 'computer' is choosing to move there.

    Overall it's an interesting logic puzzle, not only because it's done in DNA, but because the method involves seperate logic cells which have no means of communication - only the knowledge that they know everything that their brethren know.

    It has weaknesses in that it's easy to fool them all individually so they all light green.

    Probably has many good applications in chemical sniffing and quite possibly future DNA analysis speed ups.

    -Adam

  8. Great by Narphorium · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've never been a leet gamer by any means but now I can add enzymes to the long list of organisms that are capable of beating me at computer games.

  9. DNA based computer used to solve TSP by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I submitted a related story about another article on CNN today.

    Apparently, Leonard Adleman of the University of Southern California used his DNA based computer to solve the travelling salesman problem by exploiting the predictability of how DNA interacts. "Adleman used his computer to solve the classic "traveling salesman" mathematical problem -- how a salesman can visit a given number of cities without passing through any city twice -- by exploiting the predictability of how DNA interacts. Adleman assigned each of seven cities a different strip of DNA, 20 molecules long, then dropped them into a stew of millions of more strips of DNA that naturally bonded with the "cities." That generated thousands of random paths, in much the same way that a computer can sift through random numbers to break a code. From this hodgepodge of connected DNA, Adleman eventually extracted a satisfactory solution -- a strand that led directly from the first city to the last, without retracing any steps. DNA computing was born".

    Apparently, a single gram of DNA can store as much information as a trillion CDs.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
    1. Re:DNA based computer used to solve TSP by CraigoFL · · Score: 5, Funny
      "Apparently, a single gram of DNA can store as much information as a trillion CDs."

      Wow, then I've been doing the equivalent of throwing out my entire record collection every night for years...

    2. Re:DNA based computer used to solve TSP by jfengel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The problem, unfortunately, is that TSP is still an exponential problem. Solving it for seven cities is reasonably trivial. Although DNA is extremely small, an exponential about of it is not. By the time you get to 200 cities, you start requiring masses of DNA larger than the planet.

      DNA based solutions basically call for you to use DNA to sort through every possible combination. Since it's all done in parallel, it can be done fairly fast, as long as you provide enough DNA. However, the only interesting problems are exponential ones (since polynomial problems can already be solved fairly fast), and you're basically trading material for time.

      A 200 city TSP problem really isn't all that much. Some crypto breaking is equivalent to a 1,000 city TSP. The whole point of NP-completeness is that if you can solve one of them you can solve all of them. Traveling salesman is easy to explain, and more interesting than, say, 3SAT. So solving TSP for large numbers would be interesting, but sadly the solutions don't scale.

      More comp-sci background: These problems are NP in that they are "nondeterministic polynomial". That is, you can check a proposed solution in polynomical (read: reasonable) time. If you guess right the first time, you can "solve" the problem immediately. The trick is guessing right the first time. But you don't have to with DNA: you can use the molecules to check all solutions at once, which is equivalent to guessing right the first time.

      The "complete" part means that one NP-complete problem can be reduced to another in polynomial (again, read reasonable) time. So if you can solve TSP, you can solve all the other NP problems, which include scheduling, some cryptography, and a bunch of other interesting stuff.

      Sadly, the numbers get big. 10^20 DNAs weighs only micrograms, but 10^200 DNAs weighs 10^170 tons. That's why we use it for crypto: it's hard to do. Just solving it in parallel doesn't help, because there are too many things to do in parallel.

      There may be uses for DNA computing; note that the article talks more about sensors than math problems. So don't oversell it for math problems.

  10. bah! by the+darn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdotters already play LOTS of games with DNA...mostly solitare, though, as I understand.

    --
    Ceci n'est pas un post.
  11. Re:Smart enough to make a DNA computer but not to. by stienman · · Score: 5, Informative

    from http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe

    "In a normal 3x3 tic-tac-toe game, both players have a strategy to draw the game. In fact, any move by the first player leads to a draw with best play.

    "Statistically the best opening move is in one of the corners, after this move has been made if the opponent takes any square other than the centre one, then the first player can play in such a way that a win is certain, as shown in the above game. "

    -Adam

  12. Re:Very significant development by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well we already got DNA based porn. They're called girls.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!