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Problem-Solving Bacteria Crack Sudoku

Posted by samzenpus on from the and-your-bacteria-just-stink dept.

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."

3 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Link by PatPending · · Score: 4, Informative

    Try this URL instead.

    --
    What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
  2. Re:Why E.coli? by atmtarzy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Cultivated strains (e.g. E. coli K12) are well-adapted to the laboratory environment, and, unlike wild type strains, have lost their ability to thrive in the intestine. Many lab strains lose their ability to form biofilms.[70][71] These features protect wild type strains from antibodies and other chemical attacks, but require a large expenditure of energy and material resources.

    Basically the E. coli K12 gets totally owned by our immune system, as in before it has a chance to cause much damage, as in it doesn't make us sick, as in it is not "associated with human disease". In an abstract sense, saying, "K12 is 'associated with human disease' because O157:H7 is (and probably others are) associated with human disease," is very much like saying, "garden snakes/<insert relatively harmless snake> are associated with human death because black mambos/king cobras/<insert other deadly snake> is associated with human death." More colloquially put, "OMG it's a snake! It's going to kill me!" and "OMG it's E. coli! It's going to make me sick!" have the same logical flaws.

  3. Re:What's so special? by supertrinko · · Score: 5, Funny

    The fact that you're comparing your abilities to that of bacteria worries me.

    --
    If it rhymes it must be true.