Mark Megahan
Chinese scientists are well on the way to creating a “brain on a chip.” They already have complex collections of logic circuits made entirely of DNA. The human brain is a more powerful computer than anything so far constructed by man. This pathway leads toward a major breakthrough in technology.
Growing a DNA computer chip
DNA on a chip is a much bigger deal than it sounds like. Deoxyribonucleic acid makes the four letter alphabet of interlocking rungs and uprights which spiral into a twisted ladder called a “double helix.”
Those are found in each and every living cell and provide the computer code for the entire organism. Mice can do a really freaky “triple helix.”
DNA serves as “a sort of instruction manual for life, providing not just templates for a vast array of chemical structures but a means of managing their production.” For about 30 years, “engineers have explored a subtly new role for the molecule’s unique capabilities, as the basis for a biological computer.” There’s already a dish of brain cells that can play Pong. It’s trainers won’t build it another dish to play against until it masters Beer Pong.
The DNA gate team struggled along to force together “a few tailored algorithms.” The latest breakthrough came when researchers finally found a reliable way to build standard chip logic circuits from living genetic material.
The team of Chinese researchers who came up with the idea call their work “a DNA integrated circuit.” This one is “far more general purpose” than anything anyone else had come up with.
“Their liquid computer’s gates can form an astonishing 100 billion circuits, showing its versatility with each capable of running its own program.” Wetware chip technology has a whole bunch of advantages.
Leaps in speed and capacity
DNA on a chip technology has all the engineers really excited because it promises the “potential to create machines that offer significant leaps in speeds and capacities.”
Just like with the emerging field of quantum computing, “there are various approaches that can be taken.” This team “wanted to build something that was more adaptable than previous efforts, with a broader range of potential uses.”
According to the design team, “programmability and scalability constitute two critical factors in achieving general-purpose computing.” By making their circuits programmable, the chip can “perform various algorithms.”
Building up bigger circuits from smaller ones allows the scalability to handle “a growing amount of work by the addition of resources to the system.” That concept resulted in “DNA-based programmable gate arrays, or DPGAs.”
These are “short segments of DNA fixed together to create larger structures, that could then be built into integrated circuits of various combinations.” They have some interesting demos already up and running. “Through the course of their experiments, the scientists were able to create circuits for solving quadratic equations and square roots, for instance. Further down the line, these systems could be adapted for purposes such as disease diagnosis.”
The biggest advantage is that “the experimental systems showed little in the way of signal attenuation, or the gradual loss of the strength of a signal as it travels. That’s another key part of being able to build DNA computers that can scale and adapt.” DNA on a chip won’t be on your desktop anytime soon but the potential is there someday. Just like in the 1980’s there were predictions which everyone scoffed at of a “TV you can hang on your wall.“
