Largest DNA-Based Computational Circuit Created 57
angry tapir writes "Researchers from the California Institute of Technology have built [abstract] what they claim is the world's largest computational circuit based on DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), using a technology that they said could easily scale to even greater complexity."
Adds reader cwmike: "The researchers formed 130 different synthetic DNA strands that can be used to compose logic circuits. From this source material, they created one 74-molecule, four-bit circuit that can compute the square root of any number up to 15 and round down the resulting answer to the nearest integer. In their setup, the multi-layered strands of DNA are fashioned (see video) into biochemical logic gates that can perform the basic Boolean AND, OR and NOR operations executed by today's transistor-based computer processors."
Re:In their dreams! (Score:5, Informative)
Well, yes, while DNA based computing may sound like something from Science fiction, it looks like this is a small step:
The researchers formed 130 different synthetic DNA strands that can be used to compose logic circuits. From this source material, they created one 74-molecule, four-bit circuit that can compute the square root of any number up to 15 and round down the resulting answer to the nearest integer.
then
Reif also pointed out a few downsides. One is the speed of calculation. The execution of a single gate can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. Executing a four-bit square root could take up to 10 hours.
So don't be expecting any DNA based mass computing revolution anytime soon.
Destroy it! (Score:0, Informative)
I don't know what a deoxy ribo something is, but I find this new development creepy and disturbing, like that Frankenstein book. I never read it, but I'm pretty sure one of these destroy Tokyo in it. Based on that, I think we should form an eighteenth century style angry mob and protest it (and by protest I mean destroy). Can anyone prove that this won't end all life as we know it someday? I think not, and since so-called scientists with their so-called biology won't admit that it will kill everyone, it clearly means they're hiding the truth (the truth meaning that I'm right and they are wrong). No one really knows what DNA is or what it does anyway, or even if it exists, but I read a study once that says it causes cancer, so it's best use precaution before this thing turns into a cyborg raptor. Cyborg rapti (rapti being the plural of raptor, but the Big Dictionary is hiding the real spelling from you sheeple) are very real and very dangerous.