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MIT Making Computer Parts from DNA

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the growing-more-storage dept.

Rei writes "Following in the footsteps of Lynn Conway's pioneering work on VLSI that allowed ordinary students to create their own processors, a group of MIT professors have almost completed doing the same thing using DNA, known as synthetic biology. While not all of the components of a basic computer are working yet, there is hope that some day ordinary students may be able to design living computers, producing everything from novel drugs to seeds that sprout into treehouses."

14 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Humans playing God? by IO+ERROR · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This has been on /. twice before.

    Anyway, it appears that they're actually trying to create synthetic living things, which is way beyond computer parts. If they can pull this off, it will be one hell of a hack. Humans playing God, creating life. Theology may well be shaken to its very foundations.

    --
    How am I supposed to fit a pithy, relevant quote into 120 characters?
    1. Re:Humans playing God? by KingPunk · · Score: 0, Interesting

      whoo ha! finally.. i want a love-slave!
      can i grow one?
      ..hopefully they won't have the "human rights" that i do though!
      har har har!

    2. Re:Humans playing God? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What if we create a bacteria that is toxic to us?

      The problem that I have with 'creating life' is that how do we know that what we do is going to be something that doesn't create a plauge?

      I guess that the modivation of most people over there at MIT is that they want to patent something and then live off of it for the rest of their lives. They don't seem to me to actually be concerned about anything more than their next grant or getting tenure and being shown as being so clever.

      So, if the profit motive is all that is driving them than why should society have to face the consequences of what they do if they do it wrong?

      If they do it wrong are they going to be able to clean up the mess?

      I think that we are at a point where the acedemics at these very large universities are parasitic on the rest of us. They are out of control and they don't work so much for the public benifit as they do for their own selfish ends. They are like a form of fuedalism for hte modern age.

      I would like to see the for profit parts of all of these large schools be taxed. If they collect rents from dorms, then they should pay tax. They don't even pay that much to the City of
      Cambridge for police. They are out of control and should be taxed. And maybe then they would stop trying to play God.

      Oh, and if they want to play god, then don't do it from a tax-free organization. Also, if they are tax free then all of their patents should be in the public domain.

    3. Re:Humans playing God? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What if (God forbid), some of these modified viruses escape into the open and infect humans, turning them into fabric.

  2. Doing DNA at home... by TheSync · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you want to try this yourself, check out DNA Hack, the website for Amateur Genetic Engineering

  3. Re:A Lil' Dangerous? by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    yeah. just like normal chemistry does(think about all the easy to mix poisons and drugs!).

    or mechanics, or the two combined(whaaat? GUNS). so yeah, let's just dump it. let's not go there, let's put all scientific progress on statis.

    or maybe gerbils are dangerous, they multiply(hell, rabbits have/are "dangerous" for some eco systems).

    --
    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  4. Imagine the greater system possibilities! by theblacksun · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Integrate these biological components into a electrical/electronical/mechanical system and you can get some neat toys.

    How about a tree designed specifically to hide wireless cameras/microphones?

    Home biological garbage disposals, like a fast-paced compost pile.

    How about some easily controlled flying insectoid? You could tap into its optical system and save yourself the power of the cameras, just have the transmitter.

    Of course I am ignoring the possibilities of abuse. They are both endless and quite horrifying.

    --
    Ignorance kills, complacency kills, hatred kills, but usually not the ones guilty of them.
    1. Re:Imagine the greater system possibilities! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Some things would cause quite a stir. For example, you could create an organism that's basically a mouth, a blood network, and flabs of perfect muscle. It would feed on some solution. When it's full grown, you would just cut off the muscle you want, throw it in a pan, and bake it. Heck, if it's engineered right, it would regrow the muscle you harvest, and you could have a meat factory producing the finest tasting meat in the world in your own home.

      All feasible. But who would really eat it?

      And just think of the public outrage there would be when someone builds an organic computer that actually can learn. People would say it is an intelligent organism, and forbid killing it. The major religions would have a field day.

  5. What, still not here? by Mex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I read about DNA based computers about 10 years ago from a "Popular Science" type magazine here in Mexico.

    I thought they'd ALREADY be, at least, close to releasing one.

    It's interesting how many technologies take so much, much longer to come about than we'd like.

    Flying car, I miss you :(

  6. Genetic Programming Languages / Frameworks by JPyObjC+Dude · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I spent a bit of time the last couple of weeks checking out the exibits at the Ontario Science Center on genetics which is probably one of the best exibits they have ever put together. In looking at the concepts of DNA/RNA/... A thought came to me - Why not build a programming language coding framework that is based on the strict constructs of genetics. The language/framework would implicitly have serializability of all structures and could allow for generation of truly extensible components. The basic concepts of highly structured data frameworks is growing (ie. http://nakedobjects.org) but why not pull these constructs one step away from the business data and bring it to the business logic or core application coding level.

    Anybody know of such coding or at least theortical hacks out there?

    JsD

  7. oscillator by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I am currently working on building an oscillator (a basic, and very important "part" of any system) in yeast, which is in my eyes the next step up from bacteria, where most of the synthetic biology has been done (meaning I am starting basically from scatch).
    Eventually, I hope to incorporate my oscillator (which has a period of 2 cell divisions) into a binary counter of cell divisions, such that I and other researchers could look at a yeast cell under a microscope and read off its age. This could be very useful for aging studies, and also will simply be very interesting in advancing synthetic biology.

  8. More fundamental questions... by pVoid · · Score: 2, Interesting
    If we can demonstrate abiogenesis, we also demonstrate a weaker possibility- if it's possible to create life from chemicals, it's possible to create life from matter that is no longer alive (i.e. dead).

    Being able to re-create life from dead things does not mean making them alive again... it just means you create a new life from the remains (inert) of another life form. Let's not get into "Pet Cemetary" like arguments here =)

    IMHO, abiogenesis is inevitably possible. But I also think that that raises another point which you did not:

    What is life worth if it can actually be created from inert matter? My personal belief is that life isn't actually worth that much, but the consciousness that it implements is priceless. I also happen to think that life is not the only medium possible for consciousness, and that there *has* to be conscious systems out there that are not based on living organisms. (Computers maybe in the distant future)

    I also happen to think that consciousness is very fundamentally linked with quantum physics and how nothing is deterministic. But that's just really far out there, and people are going to call me crazy...

  9. Re:Carlson Curves by Rob+Carlson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As the Carlson in question, let me add the following thoughts.

    First, to what physical limits are you referring? It's worth considering what the physical limits of biological technology might be. I don't think the answer is simple.

    Second, a note on "Carlson Curves" (this is Oliver Morton's phrase, not mine): The plots were meant to provide a sense of how changes in technology are bringing about improvements in productivity in the lab, rather than to provide a quantitative prediction of the future. I am not suggesting there will be a "Moore's Law" for biological technologies. Although it may be possible to extract doubling rates for some aspect of this technology, I don't know whether this analysis is very interesting. I prefer to keep it simple. As I explain in the paper, the time scale of changes in transistor density are set by planning and finance considerations for multi-billion dollar integrated circuit fabs. Biology, on the other hand, is cheap, and change should come much faster.

    The paper, which was slashdotted when it came out last yeaer, and related writings, are available at www.synthesis.cc.

  10. Synthetic Biology is Where Linux was before Linus by lperdue · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Synthetic biology is not as new as /.ers think it is,but it is clearly pre-critical mass -- something like Linux was before Linus.

    The critical thing to understand is that this is OPEN SOURCE BIOLOGY ... bringing the same resources, intellectual curiosity and viewpoint fostered by the open source software community. There's not a biological GPL yet, but I believe there will be.

    On the Dark Side, open source software's Darth Vader -- Bill Gates -- is an early player in synthetic biology. Check out that, the MIT story and a lot of other information at: taqdot. taqdot proudly runs Slash Code.