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Problem-Solving Bacteria Crack Sudoku
techbeat writes "A strain of Escherichia coli bacteria can now solve logic puzzles – with some help from a group of students at the University of Tokyo, Japan, reports New Scientist. The team began with 16 types of E. coli, each colony assigned a distinct genetic identity depending on which square it occupied within a four-by-four sudoku grid.The bacteria can also express one of four colors to represent the numerical value of their square. As with any sudoku puzzle, a small number of the grid squares are given a value from the beginning by encouraging the bacteria in these squares to differentiate and take on one of the four colors. The Tokyo team's sudoku-solving bacteria competed in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last week."
I wrote a Python script to solve Sudoku puzzles. It takes 10 milliseconds. For a hard game where a guess is required, it takes 20 milliseconds. Interpreted Python. 10 milliseconds. Humans are terrible at this game because they can't remember 89 things at once. But it is really trivial.
I bet you're a real hit at parties.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it