Computing with the stuff of life

Researchers are taking inspiration from the workings of human organism when it comes to developing next-generation switches, sensors and chipsets. Researchers have the idea to create tiny computers from networks of nucleic acid molecules such as DNA and RNA, using high and low concentrations of molecules as signals, rather than the high and low voltages in electronics. Successful proofs of principle of nucleic acid computers have already been built, and researchers are working on more complex systems. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have, for instance, built a DNA-based neural network that operates like a tiny brain.