The computers are evolving and scientists are looking for ways to make them more complex and capable. Now a group of scientists at the prestigious Stanford University might have made a breakthrough that could change the computing forever and pave a way for biological computing systems.
The scientists have found a way to engineer a new basic form of transistors using the bacterial DNA. This achievement could result in the creation of biological computing systems that are more complex than any computer we have today. The group of scientists that consisted of five members have published a paper describing their work. In that papers they have explained how they used special enzymes in order to control the flow of nucleic acids in the E. Coli bacteria and how doing this created living key logic gates which include AND, OR, XOR etc. As these gates form the basis of computing languages it could be helpful in creating computers based on biological computing systems.
The new system created by these scientists use a new technique, which is still in early stages of development and studying – this includes the construction of living computers which can be used to fight diseases. These group of biological cells if programmed correctly could detect the presence of cancer in the human body. If it founds anything it could change its color to indicate the result.
One thing to note here is that like electronic transistors these biological transistors do not follow the Moore’s law which makes them somewhat less efficient in normal use according to the researchers.
It is a big breakthrough in the field of biological computing systems however still there’s a long way to go. You can read the paper published by Stanford University Scientists in their detailed journal here. We will follow this story and update you about further developments in this topic in the future.