DNA Computers Coming Soon — To Your Body!

Can you imagine having a computer in your own body without cybernetics? It would have to be made of a biological material, of course. How about DNA?

DNA already stores and processes information in our cells. A DNA computer would really just involve us taking advantage of this ability. In fact, DNA is very well suited to computing. It’s clean technology (no toxic materials needed to process it) and doesn’t require electricity.

We already have some DNA computers, though not yet any that can be inserted into cells. They can do things like solve math problems and play tic-tac-toe, but they are reeeeally sloooooow. Nevertheless, it’s thought that technology may eventually create DNA computers that are faster than supercomputers. Their biggest speed advantage is that they use parallel processing. In other words, they perform many operations at once, instead of one at a time.

Why are scientists so eager to stick microscopic computers in our cells? Because DNA computers could detect and fight things like cancer and viruses. In fact, they may one day provide cures for many diseases. They won’t replace silicon computers and technology, but they will probably show up in your doctor’s office some day!

For more information:
*An Overview of DNA Computing
*How DNA Computers Work
*The History of the DNA Computer

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