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Posted on Sep 22, 2002, 12 p.m.
By Bill Freeman
A group of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have used biological molecules to build a "nanocomputer" in a test tube. The computer is so small that as many as one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) of the machines could fit into a drop of water. Together, the computers can perform a billion operations per second with greater than 99.
A group of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have used biological molecules to build a "nanocomputer" in a test tube. The computer is so small that as many as one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) of the machines could fit into a drop of water. Together, the computers can perform a billion operations per second with greater than 99.8% accuracy. The computer is manufactured from DNA molecules and two enzymes that manipulate DNA in such a way that when they work together the molecules carry out a simple type of mathematical computing called finite automaton. The researchers believe that the discovery could, eventually lead to the development of nanocomputers capable of operating within the human body. Professor Zvi Livneh, one of the researchers behind the biological computer, speculates that the machines could be used to "sense an abnormal biochemical change in the body and decide how to correct it by synthesizing and releasing the necessary drug."
SOURCE/REFERENCE: Reported by www.weizmann.ac.il on the 22nd November 2001
