Biocompuation, or Biomolecular Computation

Another recent and almost unbelievable discovery is the ability to use genetic molecules to perform computational exercises. Computers as we know them today are based on a binary system of 1’s and 0’s, basically ‘on/off’ switches. This is not news to many, but I think few people appreciate how sophisticated the arrays of these switches can be. You are reading this entry, considering posting it on your Facebook page, then checking out the cool videos on our BUG pages and answering your cell phone text messages all based on this on/off binary system. It is almost as dynamic as trying to think of all of the things your brain is doing right now (don’t forget to think about thinking about it, too!)

The exponential curve of discovery in computer technology has been astounding. In 1985 at The Ohio State University, students had an option of signing up for an experimental section of English Composition in which they could write their essays on an Apple Word Processor. This was fewer than 30 years ago, at the largest university in the country, and they weren’t sure if it would ‘take!’ (I opted for the word processor!) Look at us now – all based on 1’s and 0’s. 

DNA is a 4-way or “quaternary” code. This adds an additional exponential
measure to computational facility and power. The bases Thymine, Cytosine, Adenine and Guanine (T,C,A,G) are the ‘switches.’ Also, as a naturally occurring component of all living cells, a DNA-based, molecular computer will pose far fewer challenges for use in biological systems than silicon-based micro-chips will, no matter how micro they get. For many years now scientists have been exploring this non-silicon, quaternary system of DNA, in conjunction with its ability to rapidly and accurately self-replicate, to increase capacity in computer processing speed and storage to unimaginable proportions. As early as 1994 Adleman showed that DNA could be used to program computations in a laboratory setting. 

And in 2005, Scientific American reported researcher Karmella Haynes and her colleagues in North Carolina had successfully inserted fabricated strands of DNA ‘computers’ into bacterial cells which then solved classic computational puzzles. The correct solution produced an enzyme that made them withstand a subsequent chemical treatment. Successful cells survived – beautiful! This demonstration of scientists’ abilities to manipulate genetic material reveals a small fragment of the future of bio-computation.

Combine the use of genetic molecules for computation with the recent work in melding silicon chips with living nerve tissue to begin to understand some of the implications and possibilities of the biosciences revolution we are experiencing. In 2004, Naweed Syed, a neurobiologist at the University of Calgary's faculty of medicine reported actually growing snail nerve cells on a  microchip. When a neuron was stimulated, it transferred the stimulus to other cells and the chip recorded it. They worked together. He hopes this research will help amputees interact with their artificial limbs better.  

But the implications of combining this with other advances in the bio-tech
world are much more far-reaching. From medicine to ecological studies to
incorporating computer technology into living systems, we can hardly conceive the future of these revolutionary feats. 

Satellite Technology

And finally, the innovations that will tie these fields together will arise in the field of satellite technology – turned inward. The vision of Martine Rothblatt, the developer of Sirius Satellite Radio and the founder and CEO of United Therapeutics in 2007, will drive some of this research.

After an incredible career that included the creation of Sirius Satellite Radio, and GeoStar (a vehicle locator system), and leading the United Nations counsel on the Human Genome Rights declaration, (and a remarkable amount of other noteworthy accomplishments), she turned her considerable resources to medical technology. Her daughter developed an ‘incurable’ pulmonary disease. Finding the cure for this disease has saved thousands of lives every years, including her daughter’s, and led to Rothblatt forming United Therapeutics, a medical biotechnology company. Some of her work is based on ‘transhumanism,’ which aims toward technological immortality. The ultimate realization of this would be something like capturing all of the electrical signals and synaptic connections in a person’s brain onto some storage and retrieval device for eternity – probably a non-silicon, quaternary system-based device! 

The relative merits of technological immortality notwithstanding, one of Rothblatt’s bio-medical objectives is to miniaturize satellites to the extent that they could be injected into people and guided externally to deliver some treatment or take some precise, in vivo measurement. Some versions of this sort of exercise are already widespread in modern medicine such as ‘remote surgery,’ in which doctors can manipulate robot arms thousands of miles away to perform delicate operations. Rothblatt’s vision has the doctor standing right in front of a person controlling a little satellite device remotely as it navigates around internally to find the exact site of infection, or genetic mutation or whatever anomaly they’re treating.

So, put these together. Satellite communicating, DNA bio-computing, transgenic organisms performing tasks that were never conceived in the Natural World (except as it was impacted by  humans). Folks, we may come to know the first decade or two of this 21^st Century as the “Rise of the Borg!”