Imagine living, breathing supercomputers. Scientists have found that the substance that provides energy to all the cells in our bodies, Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), may also be able to power the next generation of supercomputers, paving the way for biological supercomputers.
In this latest study, the researchers described a model of a biological supercomputer that they have created that can process information very quickly and accurately using parallel networks in the same way that massive electronic supercomputers do.
"We've managed to create a very complex network in a very small area," Dan Nicolau, one of the researchers, said in a news release. "This started as a back of an envelope idea, after too much rum I think, with drawings of what looked like small worms exploring mazes."
The model supercomputer was created with the help of a combination of geometrical modeling and engineering knowhow on the nano scale. It's the first step when it comes to showing that this kind of biological supercomputer can actually work.
The circuit that the researchers created looks a bit like a road map of a busy and very organized city as seen from a planet. Just as in a city, cars and trucks of different sizes navigate through channels that have been created for them, consuming the fuel that they need to keep moving.
In the case of the biocomputer, the chip measures about 1.5 cm square in which channels have been etched. Instead of electrons propelled within a traditional microchip, short strings of proteins travel around the circuit in a controlled way.
"Now that this model exists as a way of successfully dealing with a single problem, there are going to be many others who will follow up and try to push it further, using different biological agents, for example," said Nicolau. "It's hard to say how soon it will be before we see a full scale bio super-computer. One option for dealing with larger and more complex problems may be to combine our device with a conventional computer to form a hybrid device. Right now we're working on a variety of ways to push the research further."
The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
