DNA COMPUTING

Abstract

Silicon microprocessors have been the heart of computing world for more than forty years. Computer chip manufacturers are furiously racing to make the next microprocessor that will topple speed records and in the process are cramming more and more electronic devices onto the microprocessor. Sooner or later the physical speed and miniaturization limits of silicon microprocessors is bound to hit a wall.

Chipmakers need a new material to produce faster computing speed with fewer complexities. You won’t believe where scientists have found this new material. DNA, the material our genes are made of, is being used to build the next generation of microprocessors. Scientists are using this genetic material to create nano-computers that might take the place of silicon computers in the next decade.

A nascent technology that uses DNA molecules to build computers that are faster than the world’s most powerful human-built computers is called DNA computing. Molecular biologists are beginning to unravel the information processing tools such as enzymes, copying tools, proofreading mechanisms and so on, that evolution has spent millions of years refining. Now we are taking those tools in large numbers molecules and using them as biological computer processors.

DNA computing has a great deal of advantage over conventional silicon-based computing. DNA computers can store billions of times more data than your personal computer. DNA computers have the ability to work in a massively parallel fashion, performing many calculations simultaneously. DNA molecules that provide the input can also provide all the necessary operational energy.

DNA computing has made a remarkable progress in almost every field. It has found application in fields like biomedical, pharmaceutical, information security, cracking secret codes, etc.
Scientists and researchers believe that in the foreseeable future DNA computing could scale up to great heights!