Computer in a biochip

It has always been a time consuming process to design computer circuits, but in change of technique, engineers have used nature as a model. They have discarded etching circuits on a silicon chip and instead, using the DNA model to churn out thousands of circuits in the shortest of times. This will have deep implications for the electronic industry. Dr. Chris Dwyer, assistant professor at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, demonstrated that by simply mixing modified bits of DNA and other molecules, he could create billions of identical, nano sized, waffle-looking structures. By mixing it with different light-sensitive molecules, these self assembled blocks showed programmable traits like logic gates and switches that can be assembled into running programs.

The assembled molecules, known as chromosphores acts like light sensitive switches and thus can be used as computational models. They can also be used in biomedical apparatus and bio-medication. When light is shone unto the chromophores, it gets excited and gives off energy which is then absorbed by a neighboring chromosphore. From there, a different wavelength of light is given off. There is therefore an input light and an output light of a different wavelength. It thus models like the one and zeros of computer code, and at a much faster rate and less heat to cope with. Unlike the old model which has somehow reached its physical limitations, the new model will open much more possibilities and at nano scale to boot.