The lure of molecular computing: While marketable products seem decades away, researchers are crystallizing theories and devices that will give biological organisms the power to compute

The basic principles of molecular computing are described and two approaches are outlined: the biological, which seeks to duplicate the powerful information processing capabilities of biological systems; and the digital, which seeks to create a molecular electronics that would lead to a smaller, faster, less-expensive digital computer with increased memory density. The problem of exploiting geometry-recognition capabilities of enzyme to process nontactile input signals, like photons or electric pulses, is examined. Design approaches and simulation tools are discussed. A brief review is given of progress in the supporting technologies, with a discussion of how they might be used to fabricate a tactilizing processor simpler than a biological cell, yet capable of performing useful pattern processing.