DNA Computers

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Moore’s law states that silicon microprocessor doubles in complexity

roughly every two years. If we look at how long we have come in miniaturising
and speeding up silicon microprocessor then it actually makes sense to start
looking for alternatives now, so that silicon microprocessors reach its
miniaturisation and speed limit, we can make a smooth transition to the new
technology. Intel scientist believes that it will happen in about year 2018. So,
we require a successor and that successor lies within us, the DNA. DNA, the
material from which our genes are made of have the capacity to perform
calculation many times faster than any computer exists in this world. It also
has the potential to store data that is billions of times more than our PC. DNA
is very similar to hard drive in how it stores permanent information about our
genes.

Idea of DNA Computers came in 1994 when computer scientist Leonard

Adleman at the University of Southern California introduced the idea of using
DNA to solve complex mathematical problems. His article published in an issue
of Journal Science in 1994 outlined how to use DNA to solve a well known
mathematical problem called the “Directed Hamiltonian Path Problem”.
Instead of using electrical impulses to represent bits of information, the DNA
computer uses the chemical properties of these molecules by examining the
patterns of combination or growth of molecules or strings. DNA can do this
through the manufacture of enzymes that could be called software used to
execute the desired calculation.

There various advantages of using DNA instead of silicon. DNA computer

perform millions of operation simultaneously. It efficiently handles massive
amount of working memory. The large supply of DNA from cellular organisms
makes it a cheap source. Unlike the toxic materials used to manufacture
traditional microprocessor, DNA microchips can be made cleanly. DNA
computers can be made many times smaller than today’s computer. However,
DNA computers do have their limitations. Algorithm proposed so far uses
really slow molecular – biological operation. DNA molecules can break up over
time. Every operation we want to do in DNA computer is random. The
components in DNA computers are probabilistic.

The field of DNA computing is truly exciting for the revolution it implies
will occur within next few years. It also demonstrates the trend of merging and
lack of distinction between sciences, where a computer scientist can mess
around with biology equipment and come up with something new and
valuable.