Horseradish computer
p2p news / p2pnet: First, a quantum computer able to find a particular item in a database without actually looking for it. Now, a molecular computer which, "could eventually be implanted into the human body and used to, for example, tailor the release of drugs to a specific person’s metabolism," says New Scientist.
Itamar Willner colleagues at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel built their calculator using two enzymes – glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) to, "trigger two interconnected chemical reactions," says the story.
"Two chemical components – hydrogen peroxide and glucose – were used to represent input values (A and B). The presence of each chemical corresponded to a binary 1, while the absence represented a binary 0. The chemical result of the enzyme-powered reaction was determined optically.
"The enzyme computer was used to perform two fundamental logic computations known as AND (where A and B must both equal one) and XOR (where A and B must have different values). The addition of two further enzymes – glucose oxidase and catalase – connected the two logical operations, making it possible to add together binary digits using the logic functions."
But fast the enzyme calculator isn’t.
New Scientists quotes Willner as saying it can take several minutes to perform a calculation, but, "We feel you could implant an enzyme computer into the body and use it to calculate an entire metabolic pathway."
Also See:
quantum computer – Switched off computer, computes, February 23, 2006
New Scientist – Enzyme computer could live inside you, February 23, 2006
