DNA Computer

Deoxyribonuctic acid or shortly DNA is the genetic material in almost all living things except some viruses. It is a substance present in chromosomes within the nucleus. The genes are only a part of DNA. One important characteristic of DNA is that it is a genetic material capable of containing information for its own replication and for the synthesis of the proteins. Defined In general terms, (a chemical computer is one that processes information by making and breaking chemical bonds, and it stores logic states or information in the resulting chemical (i.e., molecular) structures. A chemical nanocomputer would perform such operations selectively among molecules taken just a few at a time in volumes only a few nanometers on a side. Proponents of a variant of chemical nanocomputers, biochemically based computers, can point to an existence proof for them in the commonplace activities of humans and other animals with multicellular nervous systems. Nonetheless, artificial fabrication or implementation of this category of natural, or biochemically-based computers seems far off because the mechanisms for animal brains and nervous systems still are poorly understood. In the absence of this deeper understanding, research on biochemically based computers has proceeded in alternative directions. One alternative direction has been to adapt naturally occurring biochemicals for use in computing processes that do not occur in nature. Important examples of this are: Adleman s DNA-based computer Birge s bacteriorhodopsim.based computer memories Another line of investigation has been to culture and employ living tissues tissues for computational purposes.The bacteriorhodopsin is a light sensitive protein dye that is produced by some bacteria. Robert Birge of Syrcause University has shown that it could provide a very high-density optical memory that could be integrated into an electronic computer to produce a hybrid device of much greater power than a conventional purely electronic computer. Dr.Jaifles Hickman of the SAIC Corporation and his colleagues over there are working on culturing and linking living neuronal cells to build a bio-electronic computer. They envisage such a computer might be well suited for pattern recognition tasks. Of these three lines of investigations into the nature s answer to computing, the one that has really taken of is the first one, that is Adleman s DNA computer. Adleman is a mathematician cum molecular biologist. He is the first one ever to implement a DNA based computer system. The system he implemented solves a simplified version of the Hamiltonian problem (the travelling salesman problem) More recently in 1970 in a revolutionary book named Future Shock, Alvin Toffier the famous sociologist has written about biological components playing a more crucial role towards the development of future computers.