Morgan BellUsing yeast cells to run calculations
October 20th 2008 21:29
Typically, yeast is used for baking delicious loaves of bread, or fermenting huge vats of beer; personally, I make a great pizza crust, fluffy and soft, all with the magic of yeast.
Now comes the startling discovery that living yeast cells can easily replace your Apple MacBooks, capable of running mathematical calculations at lightning fast speeds!
Ok, I'm exaggerating things a little.
The truth is: Molecular computer runs calculations inside living cell, according to New Scientist.
Basically what they've done is make a NOT gate out of yeast cell. The NOT gate is just one tiny component of a computer chip, and, by itself, is pretty much useless.
Not to mention that the input and output are not electrical signals:
"The Caltech device processes input signals in the form of natural cell proteins and produces an output in the form of green fluorescent protein (GFP) (see a slideshow of images of GFP in use)."
If you're looking for a NOT gate that outputs a green fluorescent protein, you're in luck - yeast is the way to go.
The idea is to chain these cellular computers together, and cobble together some sort of rudimentary computing device, perhaps a digital clock or a simple calculator.
That's right - after years of hard work and planning, millions of dollars of investment, we can finally make a biological computer that can mimic a prize given away free in a box of cereal.
Sarcasm aside, it's an interesting step into a world of frightening science fiction, with yeast at every corner, watching your every move.
Of course, yeast can be used for all kinds of nefarious purposes: check out these kids that make a yeast bomb:
It's not that cool - when I was younger, we used to make plastic bottle bombs out of dry ice and water, which we thought were hilarious, but almost blew off the fingers of a friend.
A possible advantage of the yeast bomb is that you could put a little flour in there, so, after it explodes, there's pizza dough everywhere. Now, I'm not suggesting that you should eat it - but I understand if you do.
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