
Some people belived that the future of computing lies in the molecule that provied the blueprint for how living creatures are made?
It started in the 1990s when Leonard Adleman, of the Unversity of South California, came up with a way to use DNA to solve one of cmputing's most difficult and complex tasks. The travelling salesman problem. This tries to find the most efficient way to visit a set of cities so that you pass through each one as possible --- ideally, only once. Adleman worked out that the paths between cities could be cooled into DNA.
If a path between two citi$es matched, those DNA strands would stick to each other . Eventually, lots of strands would macth up to produced a list of cities in DNA, packed into a classic double helix. Just shaking up a test tube full of those different DNA strands did the job. It was the ultimate parallel processor. Or was it?
In a silicon-based computer, the transistors that do the calculations are feed it to them. With a DNA computer, you have to make a complete new set of DNA strands each time. ITs a new computer every time you want to calculate something.
It gets worse. DNA computing only looks fast because things can happen in parallel. BUt the reactions only works if you can tolerate errors, said Ellington.
" DNA computers can manipulate matter: Chemistry is their world, " said Zack Booth Simpson, a software engineer and molecular biology researcher at the University of Texas. But when it comes to manipulating digits, silicon is likely to keep its edge into the foreseeable future.
It started in the 1990s when Leonard Adleman, of the Unversity of South California, came up with a way to use DNA to solve one of cmputing's most difficult and complex tasks. The travelling salesman problem. This tries to find the most efficient way to visit a set of cities so that you pass through each one as possible --- ideally, only once. Adleman worked out that the paths between cities could be cooled into DNA.
If a path between two citi$es matched, those DNA strands would stick to each other . Eventually, lots of strands would macth up to produced a list of cities in DNA, packed into a classic double helix. Just shaking up a test tube full of those different DNA strands did the job. It was the ultimate parallel processor. Or was it?
In a silicon-based computer, the transistors that do the calculations are feed it to them. With a DNA computer, you have to make a complete new set of DNA strands each time. ITs a new computer every time you want to calculate something.
It gets worse. DNA computing only looks fast because things can happen in parallel. BUt the reactions only works if you can tolerate errors, said Ellington.
" DNA computers can manipulate matter: Chemistry is their world, " said Zack Booth Simpson, a software engineer and molecular biology researcher at the University of Texas. But when it comes to manipulating digits, silicon is likely to keep its edge into the foreseeable future.


